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Dear Brothers and Sisters within the WordAlone Network,
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead, to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen!
And so may His Kingdom come, indeed without our prayer, but we pray that it may come among us also. It is with joy that we reach out to all who share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as witnessed in the Holy Scripture as the only rule and norm of Christian faith and life, our norma normans, and as expressed in our Lutheran Confessions as the norma normata. We affirm the historic, orthodox, creedal and confessional Lutheran witness to the Gospel, and we are committed to the mission of Christ’s church to seek and to save the lost, and to nurture those within the household of faith until they might rejoice with all the saints, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, that “salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
In this we now rejoice, that our conversations and dialog have expressed the following common assumptions and understandings:
More immediately and specifically, and following upon the recommendation of our faculty in its April, 2007, meeting, Dr. Dale Meyer, president of Concordia Seminary, has instituted the role of “Facilitator of External Working Relationships,” specifically with those not in the LCMS. In this role, I have been initially appointed to serve as liaison to the WordAlone Network. With others in our faculty and administration, I am pleased to continue to foster, as appropriate, the relationship already nurtured through dialog with your leadership and network.
Although we had hoped – and have tried even in these last weeks -- to be able to send such a liaison to your Convention, neither I nor another representative is able to be with you at this time. As Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt can attest, he and I have been in regular contact, and he can speak for the work and efforts in which we have been engaged.
Further, as discussed with your representatives, Concordia Seminary invites students to enroll into our graduate programs of theological studies, cognizant of our traditional, confessional position within the framework of historic and evangelical Lutheran theology. Indeed, we welcome those who are willing to engage in honest dialogue and conversation about controversial theological matters, including issues such as the historical-critical method and women’s ordination. We recognize that, as a denominational seminary, we do not prepare candidates for the Holy Ministry outside of the LCMS and those in church fellowship with her. We are also prepared to continue discussion of the initiatives of WordAlone Network to augment such graduate education as they see fit, including proposals such as a house of studies and the interchange of guest faculty.
Finally, consistent with the expression of the larger goals of our collaborative work, we desire to create safe space for serious discussion of what it means to confess and teach the historic, orthodox, confessional Lutheran faith in the North American context and internationally, and we invite participation from all others who seek to engage such issues facing Lutheranism in today’s world, both within ELCA and the LCMS, as well as amongst other Lutherans and Lutheran agencies.
We recognize the challenges and even risks that come not only to us but also to you as we pursue these goals. But we are confident in the grace and guidance of God, even as we pray for His wisdom and blessing, in the name of Christ. He is risen indeed!
Andrew Bartelt
Executive Vice President
Academic Dean
Facilitator of External Working Relationships and Liaison to the WordAlone Network