Jesus' Body Found!

It's Lent, the season Christians prepare for the remembrance of Christ's Passion and a time for the media go wild over the "latest new find" showing that the death and resurrection of Jesus are nonsense. This time it's a Discovery Channel "documentary," The Jesus Family Tomb, along with a book, brought to us by the director of The Titanic.

James M. Kushner over at Touchstone magazine's Mere Comments offers a most succinct response:

Funny that when evidence against Jesus's Resurrection was most needed--during that time when several hundred witnesses were openly squawking about it--those interested in such evidence (his alleged bones in a box even conveniently labelled as such) somehow missed the boxes right under their noses. They could've nipped his religious movement in the bud, having failed the first time on Good Friday.

Unbeknownst to James Cameron, but obvious even to Time magazine Christians have been visiting the tomb of Jesus since the days of Roman Emperors. I visited it myself in 1985!

As for His Body, you will find it at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peoria and lots of other churches. Come on by, Mr. Cameron, and I'll show you.

Lutheran CORE Steering Committee responds to Schmeling hearing report and New England Synod action

Lutheran CORE
Coalition for Reform

February 14, 2007

Dear Christian Friends,

Most of us had hoped that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America would have a respite from the troublesome sexuality issues this year, and that we would not have to address them until the 2009 churchwide assembly. However, last week we learned of two decisions that will likely result in these issues being addressed at the assemblies this year. The groups in the ELCA working for approval of homosexual behavior have made them front burner issues this year.

Early this month, the New England Synod released a set of guidelines for the blessing of same sex unions. These guidelines, approved by that synod's Synod Council, provide suggestions for the blessing of same sex unions, including a public liturgy for such occasions. According to these guidelines, such blessings are a part of the church's pastoral care for gay and lesbian persons.

Last week, the discipline hearing committee in the case of Pastor Bradley Schmeling released its report. Pastor Schmeling, a pastor in the Southeastern Synod, has acknowledged that he is in a sexual partnership with another man. The bishop of the Southeastern Synod followed constitutional provisions for discipline and presented the case to a discipline hearing committee for a decision on the pastor's roster status. The report of the committee directs that Pastor Schmeling be removed from the pastoral office on August 15 after the churchwide assembly. The report goes further, however, and urges synod assemblies to memorialize the 2007 churchwide assembly and churchwide organization to take action that would allow for the ordination of partnered and practicing gay and lesbian persons.

The actions of both the New England Synod Council and the Schmeling discipline hearing committee are in conflict with previous decisions of our church. Regarding the New England guidelines, the Synod Council appropriately refers to the need for pastoral care for gay and lesbian persons. It cites as reference, Recommendation 2 on Same Sex Blessings, as adopted by the 2005 churchwide assembly. However, the Synod Council has chosen to disregard the other part of that recommendation which states, "We recognize that there is basis neither in Scripture nor in tradition for the establishment of an official ceremony by this church for the blessing of a homosexual relationship We, therefore, do not approve such a ceremony as an official action of this church's ministry."

Regarding the report of the discipline hearing committee, we recognize the tragic necessity of removing Pastor Schmeling from the pastoral office. His behavior is a clear violation of provisions in Vision and Expectations and Definitions and Guidelines. However, the report calls on synods to memorialize the churchwide assembly, and urges that these memorials provide for the ordination of gay and lesbian persons who are in homosexual relationships. In this, the committee has clearly exceeded its constitutional mandate. The churchwide constitution is clear that the function of a discipline hearing committee is to make a decision on discipline. The committee is not charged with making further recommendations on anything.

The Lutheran CORE steering committee takes strong exception to the guidelines of the New England Synod. We also take strong exception to the discipline hearing committee's recommendation that synods memorialize the churchwide assembly to rescind its 2005 actions regarding ordination. More importantly, these actions stand in contrast to the Biblical norm for marriage and human relationships, as we have confessed them through the ages. According to Holy Scripture, marriage is a union of one man and one woman, and other sexual relationships do not conform to the mind of the Creator.

Lutheran CORE has, therefore, initiated a number of steps to respond to both actions. We are developing a strategy to address these issues, should they come to the floor of the 2007 churchwide assembly - as now seems likely. We are in contact with colleagues in several synods, and we are preparing a synod assembly memorial to the churchwide assembly. This memorial will indicate that pastoral care does not include the blessing of same sex unions. We are working with colleagues in several synods to the end that their synod councils address the question to the Church Council: does pastoral care mean the blessing of same sex unions?

We are grateful that we are working cooperatively with the WordAlone Network and with others who share our commitment to the orthodox practice of our church.

What can you do? Here are some strong suggestions...

* You can become familiar with the documents, the discipline hearing committee report and the New England Synod guidelines. In your own way, you can spread the word of what these documents say and mean.

* You can speak with the voting members from your synod to the churchwide assembly and urge them to speak and vote in favor of preserving the present standards for marriage and ordination.

* You can write letters - polite, thoughtful, carefully constructed letters. In fact, we urge you to do this, especially with reference to the statement of the New England Synod Council. You need to write to your synodical bishop, synod council and to any Church Council member within your synod - with a copy to Bishop Margaret Payne of the New England Synod (20 Upland Street, Worcester, MA 01607-1530). Our bishops and councils need to hear from us, how seriously we take this issue.

* We earnestly urge you to be constant in prayer over our church these days. Our bishops and other leaders need our prayers. When they were installed into their offices, we promised to pray for them. So let us be about this during these troubling days, when so many have become weary with these discussions.

We readily confess that the center of our church lies in God's justifying grace in Christ. Through Holy Scripture, God speaks to us in both law and Gospel. God's grace does not nullify the law. God's grace does not give us permission to do whatever we would choose to do. The grace of God empowers us to a "new obedience."

As always, we continue to depend on God' leading and guiding, and we seek your counsel, support, and encouragement.

Lutheran CORE Steering Committee:

    Paull Spring, State College, PA, chair
    Erma Wolf, Brandon, SD, vice chair
    W. Stevens Shipman, Watsontown, PA, secretary
    Mark Chavez, Landisville, PA, director
    Mark Graham, Roanoke, VA
    Scott Grorud, Hutchinson, MN
    Ken Kimball, Waterville, IA
    Victor Langford, Seattle, WA
    Ryan Schwarz, Washington, DC
    Paul Ulring, Columbus, OH

ELCA Pastor Defrocked

An ELCA Discipline Hearing Committee has ruled that The Rev. Bradley J. Schmeling, pastor at St. John Lutheran Church, Atlanta, Georgia, be removed from the ELCA clergy roster this coming August 15 because he is is a "committed relationship" with another man, former ELCA pastor Darin Easler. For more details, see the February 8 ELCA News Release and the Southeastern Synod's web site, which includes the actual committee report. [Note: The report no longer appears there on the Southeastern Synod's site. It can, however, be found here or here. spt+ 18.11.2009]

In reaction to the report, that evening I wrote the following to some colleagues:

Well, reading these things is always interesting.

The committee states that in 2000 Pastor Schmeling refused to answer the question on his compliance with Vision and Expectations, but Bishop Warren put him in the call process, and then approved his call, anyway. So immediately we have the very Bishop later filing charges on this basis putting the propriety of the ELCA's standard in question.

The descriptions of Pastor Schmeling's "partner" include at least 2 obviously verifiable mis-statements of fact: he was removed from the roster by SE Minn Synod Council actions; he did not resign. Also, he has already been credentialed as a minister by a UCC conference.

The latter doesn't have a significant place in the committees decision, but both of these raise the question of the integrity of those involved in this process.

I should think that the statement that "St. John’s membership includes several pastors who are on the ELCA roster, in either active or retired status, several teaching theologians, and several graduate students in theology" would ring loud alarms for all concerned, especially since this is taken as their support of his continuing as their pastor, and an ELCA pastor.

The description of Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline attributed to Bishop Chilstrom completely ignores the history of the development of Vision and Expectations in the ELCA which which was a major development under his watch as ELCA Bishop (and a matter of extreme importance to those of us who were ELCA seminarians during its development and initial implementation).

Once again, an ELCA disciplinary committee, while judging (IMNSHO) appropriately the consequences of a pastor (or congregation) violating ELCA standards, notes that the ELCA's advocates bring no theological testimony to defend the rules (which would, at the very least, note that Pastor Schmeling's public "partnership" would never have been deemed compatible with the Office of the Ministry until a generation ago), but merely speak to the violation of the rules themselves.

Finally, the Discipline Hearing Committee proposes 3 memorials for Synod Assemblies to act upon that would remove language about practicing homosexuals in Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline, remove it also from Vision and Expectations, and proceed to reinstate former ELCA pastors removed for being in "a loving, lifelong partnership with another person of the same sex that is mutual, chaste, and faithful." You can be sure that many Synod Assemblies will be presented such memorials, and that they would easily pass in at least a dozen ELCA Synods.

It looks like homosexuality has just become, next to the election of Bishop and Secretary, the key issue for this summer's CWA. Will the ELCA's "traditionalists" on marriage and sexuality be prepared?

For the record, I have learned since writing the above that Bishop Warren has been clear in expressing his opposition to the church "blessing" of same-sex unions or to changing the ELCA's standards for clergy to permit us to enter into "committed" same-sex unions -- see his Pastoral Letters here and here. For that, this pastor offers a hearty Amen! -- if only more ELCA Bishops were willing to publicly say the same.

Meanwhile, the next question is will St. John's and Pr. Schmeling accept this discipline and what might happen if they, like several other ELCA congregations, do not.

Yes, the ELCA still needs our prayers.

The Mystery of Jesus' Baptism

The Gospel reading for the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany of Our Lord (January 6th) tells of the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, and because of that the day has developed into the Festival of the Baptism of Our Lord. In reading through the various sermon preparation helps that are available, I was struck at how the newer they were the more they focussed not on the Baptism of Jesus, but on our baptism.

Then I read this from Cyril of Alexandria (375-444):

But how then, they object, was he baptized and received the Spirit? We reply that he had no need of holy baptism. He was wholly pure and spotless, and the holiest of the holy. He did not need the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit that proceeds from God the Father is from him and equal to him in substance. Now, at last, we must explain God's plan of salvation. God, in his love of humankind, provided for us a way of salvation and of life. Believing in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and making this confession before many witnesses, we wash away all the filth of sin. The communication of the Holy Spirit enriched us, made us partakers of the divine nature and gained for us the grace of adoption as God's children. It was necessary, therefore, that the Word of the Father become for our sakes the pattern and way of every good work when he humbled himself to emptiness and deigned to assume our likeness. For it follows that he who is first in everything must set the example in this too. He commences the work himself in order that we may learn about the power of holy baptism and learn how much we gain by approaching so great a grace. Having been baptized, he prays that you, my beloved, may learn that never-ceasing prayer is a thing most fitting for those who have one been counted worthy of holy baptism.

From Cyril's "Commentary of Luke, Homily 11," as found in The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT III: Luke (pp. 66-67).

Ah, the wisdom of the Ancient Church Fathers strikes again.

St. Jerome and the Infant Jesus

Pastor Richard Johnson has posted the following over on the Forum Blogs section of ALPB Forum Online under the title "Jerome and the Child Christ." As I read it, I was visualizing the statue of St. Jerome in front of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which I saw during my visit to the Holy Land in 1985. I hope you find this as deeply moving as my friend Pastor Johnson and I do. You can find it over here.

In going through my files recently, I came upon a faded carbon copy of a translation (presumably from German) made by my late father-in-law. He unfortunately did not indicate the original source of the document (if anyone knows, I'd love to hear about it!). But I found it particularly moving, and wanted to share it with the rest of you, with wishes for a joyful Christmass celebration:

A Conversation between the Venerable Church Father, Saint Jerome, and the Infant Jesus in the Manger

Saint Jerome, to whom this conversation is ascribed not long before his death, spent the closing years of his long life in Bethlehem, close by the birthplace of the Savior—the manger of Christ. When he was called to the exalted office of Bishop, he replied, “Nothing can draw me away from the Manger of Christ. There is for me no better place on earth. From that very place at which God gave to me His Son from heaven, I would like to send my soul back to Him in heaven.

“Whenever I look upon this place, my heart holds a sweet conversation with the Infant Jesus

“I say to Him: ‘Oh, Lord Jesus, how you tremble! How hard is your bed for the sake of my salvation! How shall I ever repay this?’

“Then it seems to me that the Holy Child replies, ‘From you, Jerome, I ask only the song, Glory to God in the Highest! Let that be enough for you. My need will be deeper yet in Gethsemane and on Calvary.

“I speak further: ‘Dear little Jesus, I must give you something. Let me give you all my wealth.’

“The Child replies, ‘From the beginning the Heavens and the Earth are mine. I do not need your treasures. Give them to the poor. I shall receive that as if you had done it to me.’

“I speak again: ‘Dear little Jesus, this I shall do gladly, but I must also give something just for you, or I shall die of sorrow.’

“The Child replies: ‘Dear Jerome, since you are so generous of heart, I will tell you what you may give to me. Give me your sins—your bad conscience—and your condemnation!’

“I ask: ‘What will you do with them?’

“The infant Jesus says: ‘I want to take them upon my shoulders. This shall be my glory, and my glorious deed, as Isaiah once said, that I shall take your sins upon myself and carry them away.’

“At this I begin to weep bitterly, and say: ‘O, Child, dear, holy Child, how deeply you have touched my heart! I thought you wanted something good—but you want everything in me which is bad! Oh, take what is mine! Give me what is Yours! Then I shall be free from sin, and assured of eternal life!’”

--Translated from German by Richard W. Solberg

For more about Pastor Solberg, see his recent obituary from the ELCA News Service.

The Latest from Lutheran CORE

Lutheran CORE is a coalition of ELCA pastors, laity, congregations and reforming groups who seek to preserve within that church body the authority of the Word of God according to the Lutheran confessions. I have been a part of this coalition for reform since its formation in 2005. This is the latest correspondence from the Lutheran CORE Steering Committee:

Dear Christian Friends,

The Lutheran CORE steering committee continues hard at work, as we seek to advocate for Biblical faithfulness and confessional loyalty in our church. We intend to remain in the "calling to which (we) have been called" (Ephesians 4:1) as members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA is our church. With the help of God's Word and Spirit, it is also God's church. Our intention, as Lutheran CORE, with the help of God's Word and Spirit, is to be a voice for the Word of God within our church. We are neither of the left not of the right. We are for the center, where Christ is Lord, and where his Word redeems us and calls us to newness of life.

At our November steering committee meeting we took a number of positive steps in furthering our mission and ministry. We approved the printing of a brochure about our work. We authorized the expansion of our web site, reachable through our new web address www.lutherancore.org. We considered how we might cooperate more effectively with the other reform movements in our church. In a spirit of mutual endeavor, we shared among ourselves how Lutheran CORE and the WordAlone Network can work together. This latter conversation will continue in January, when we meet with the WordAlone board of directors.

The bulk of our meeting time was spent on reviewing and projecting ways for us to implement the four basic themes for our work and ministry.

HUMAN SEXUALITY. We are anxiously awaiting the study guide in December, the run-up to a proposed social statement on sexuality in 2009. We are considering how we will respond to this study guide. We are watching carefully how the synods are implementing the decisions of the 2005 churchwide assembly on blessings and ordinations. We are also exploring how to respond, should attempts be made to overturn the decisions of the 2005 churchwide assembly.

LEADERSHIP in the ELCA. Among the most important actions of the 2007 churchwide assembly will be the calling of a presiding bishop and secretary and elections for the Church Council. Lutheran CORE is seeking to work in cooperation with WordAlone and others, so that our church may be led by persons who are committed to the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions. We plan to be in communication with the voting members of the churchwide assembly regarding our hopes and concerns.

BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION. The 2005 churchwide assembly called for a churchwide study of the Bible and its interpretation. The plans for this study are still in process. We applaud the intention of this study. A number of regional conferences on Biblical interpretation are being planned. As Lutheran CORE, we want to be supportive of this study process. But we also want to be careful how this study deals with classic Lutheran norms and principles.

The NAMING of GOD as FATHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT. The imminent arrival of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (the "new hymnal") will cause considerable distress among many Lutheran CORE supporters. As Lutheran CORE, our concern is not so much about the liturgical elements, about which we have different opinions. Our chief concern is how the Trinitarian formula for God is used in the liturgy and hymnody. It is very worrisome to us that at so many points the classic Biblical name for the Holy Trinity is placed in parallel with other titles of address for God. It is as if the Holy Trinity were an option for right worship! Lutheran CORE is analyzing this matter. We are not against the new hymnal as such. But we are considering how we can give guidance, so that pastors and congregations who choose to use it will use this book responsibly.

We are grateful beyond words for the faithful and prayerful support we receive from throughout our church. We are thankful for the partnership we have with the WordAlone Network. We appreciate the financial support that we receive from individuals, congregations, and other reform movements.

We ask that you continue to pray for us. We encourage you to speak on our behalf to others. We invite you to support our work financially. We know that we are in this for the long haul, and we sense very keenly that ours is not an easy task. But we are sustained, as you are, by Christ himself, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Head of the church and the Lord of all creation.

Lutheran CORE Steering Committee:

Paull Spring, State College, PA, chair
Erma Wolf, Brandon, SD, vice chair
W. Stevens Shipman, Watsontown, PA, secretary
Mark Chavez, Landisville, PA, director
Mark Graham, Roanoke, VA
Scott Grorud, Hutchinson, MN
Ken Kimball, Waterville, IA
Ryan Schwarz, Washington, DC
Paul Ulring, Columbus, OH

For more about Lutheran CORE, see its website. And if you wish to be supportive of or part of this coalition (especially if you are in an Illinois ELCA congregation), feel free to contact me.

"The Church of Sweden is about to implode."

This past summer I visited Sweden for the second time to attend the General Chapter of the Society of St. Birgitta and to explore both my ancestral and churchly roots. (The photo here is one I took of the Kristdala kyrka (Kristdala parish church), where my maternal grandfather's mother and her family and ancestors were baptized and confirmed before they started immigrating circa 1870.)

Because of those connections I have long held an interest in the Church of Sweden, and I have followed the news of her decline particularly in the last couple of generations -- a decline the leaders of the Episcopal Church in the USA and, alas, our own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America seem eager to emulate.

Among the leaders of the faithful in the Swedish Church is Fr. Yngve Kalin, chairman of Kyrklig samling (The Church Coalition for the Bible and the Confession) and pastor of the Hyssna congregation near Gothenburg in western Sweden. His latest public letter, which has also been published in the journal Svensk Pastoral Tidskrift, was sent to me by my friend Dr. Birgitta Peterson who wrote, "Yngve Kalin would be grateful if you in different ways could help spreading this 'message from Sweden' to fellow Christians in the Church Universal."

A Commission of Inquiry, Please!

Hyssna, Sweden 16th September 2006

Dear Friends,

Many people have seen it and increasing numbers are beginning to discover it: Our church is in the process of fragmentation. We have to speak the truth in order to save what can be saved. The facts speak clearly. Attendance at worship has collapsed in many places (only a few more than 100,000 people constitute the average attendance at the Sunday service in the 1837 parishes that make up the Church of Sweden), parishes are being amalgamated (681 parishes and 212 joint parishes have disappeared in five years) and the members withdraw from church membership in large numbers.

Current prognoses predict that in 15-20 years, the membership will have decreased so much that the current level of work can no longer be maintained. We can see that already. Everyone will be affected. The Church of Sweden is about to implode. Now we must act and speak out. We must point out the reasons and work out plans of action.

The Church Order, copied on the Swedish Law of local self-government, expressing and aiming at uniformity, holds together a rocking and reeling organisation. The church is held together by its outward organisation, providing a structure of national coverage, by its organisation of territorial parishes, by its jointly held property, investment funds and pension commitments, but also by the secular social legislation regulating employment rights and the system of fees collection.

The formally free Church of Sweden did not become really free. The Church-State reform at the turn of the millennium only meant that the principle of democracy took effect at all levels in a way that was hitherto unknown throughout the history of the universal Church. Those responsible for preparing and adopting the Church Order chose to ignore the fact that the Church is, by its very nature, something different from a regular democracy. It is not an association, nor a popular movement, ant it is not a legally imposed authority. The theologically motivated national "folk-church" became the democratic "folk-church" at the turn of the millennium, in which the people, through their elected representatives have the right to make decisions on all matters, including matters relating to the "faith, confession and teaching" of the church. This is the threat against the identity of our church as part of the universal, worldwide Church of Christ. If decisions that are contrary to the revealed faith continue to be taken, the Church of Sweden will become more and more isolated from the rest of Christendom. This provincialism threatens her catholicity. The description, "the Swedish Church" will take on an entirely new meaning, with the emphasis on "Swedish." If that will still be a church in the real sense of the word remains is debatable.

This is the reason why the Church of Sweden is losing ground in all areas. How can a church province that is profoundly uncertain about its profession of faith in the living Lord ever hope to awaken and sustain faith in the hearts of its people? How can a church that undertakes its activities on a foundation of doubt and uncertainty ever hope to encourage people to live their lives by faith in the Risen Lord and to proclaim their faith through their actions?

The foundation of the Church of Sweden, its faith and teaching, is in principle unchangeable at all times, regardless of any majority decisions by the politically constituted General Synod. The proud reference in opening statement of the Church Order, proclaiming that the church "is founded on the Holy Word of God," does not seem to have any real consequence in practice. We cannot pass over the fact that the politically elected General Synod is the teaching authority of the Church of Sweden, wielding unimpaired power and primacy as the interpreter of matters of faith and teaching. The so-called Doctrine Commission is purely cosmetic. It can be voted down by a two-thirds majority of the political General Synod. What the Universal Church has formulated during a long process of handing on the tradition of teaching, by ecumenical councils, by studies of the Holy Scripture under guidance of the Holy Spirit can all be changed by political majority decisions.

In this outward framework, a modern, experimental theology flourishes, which has made a virtue out of its own constructed theological model of a continuous revelation. Someone has put it like this: "The church wrote the Bible, and therefore the church can rewrite the Bible." Now that is plain speaking. The Bible is not the revealed word of God which contains everything we need to know for our salvation, and by which the church stands and falls. The Bible is rather a collection of peopleÂ’s experiences of God, and it should be considered in relation to our own experiences and insights. Now you can no longer declare with St Paul: "I know in whom I believe" (2 Tim. 1:12). The cry is rather: "What is it that I no longer have to believe in?" All this takes place under the cover of the concept of biblical interpretation, which now no longer means to translate the words of the Bible into our own circumstances by penetrating ever deeper into the divine Revelation itself, but rather to seek to find out what you might plausibly consider to be the real message of the Bible, and which is often summarised as its "message of love." That is theology without pastoral action, without any enthusiasm for mission and testimony. That can only serve to impoverish the church and its parishes. We have become a church of questions, but without any answers! A "folk-church" without the folks, because the folks are deserting the church!

If you want to pinpoint this a little further, you could say that this theology, which has lost its faith in the Revealed word, make God unknown to us, and Jesus becomes no more than an interesting person, whom some people might find either interesting and others will resist. That which we call the church is no more than an organisation among others, mission equals propaganda and liturgy is reduced to ceremonies. The Christian life-style becomes no more than ethical action, which can change over time. However, the faith in the revealed Word, and in the Risen and living Christ, present in his Church and in the Gospel, is a life-giving power that recreates and transforms us human beings. Even the hardest of hearts might one day be transformed into hearts of flesh...

In the past, I have been accused of painting a black picture. Never mind. I will not cease to speak what is obvious and what an increasing number of people can feel, right into their bones. The words in the Book of the Apocalypse, 3:17 "You say: How rich I am! What a fortune I have made! I have everything I want" would seem to fit the Church of Sweden only too well. That text in the Bible continues: "In fact, though you do not realise it, you are a pitiful wretch, poor, blind and naked."

It is possible to turn things round. First, however, insight about the real situation is required; an awareness of the crisis, in other words. There are still counter-images and there are places where the profession of the faith in the church as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" are still proclaimed and expressed, in faith and life. There are people who stand firm in this profession of the faith of the apostles, and who uphold that faith in relation to both doctrinal and ethical issues. They take the view that this faith carries far more weight than the political majorities, who have taken on the role as the teaching authority of the Church of Sweden. It is these people, these groups, which are the future of the Church of Sweden. We must not abandon our church in these difficult circumstances, even though there are serious and skilful attempt to drive us out by administrative measures and ever new decisions. To remain will require sacrifices from many of us, and we will have to find unconventional solutions in order to survive. We will continue to tell the truth about how things really are, and to plead for a "commission of inquiry." A commission that would have the courage to evaluate the consequences of the decisions taken, and that would analyse the causes behind the collapse of customary and popular church attendance and the alienation felt by such large groups of the Swedish population in the face of developments in the parishes. We need to recover our confidence and our courage to profess out faith, and we need to find ways to live an authentic Christian life and to be the Church in a minority situation.

If nothing is done, the ecclesiastical system will collapse. Our role is to remain and firm and assiduously proclaim and keep the apostolic faith. When destruction hits, we must start building again on the old foundation, because "There can be no other foundation than the one already laid: I mean Jesus Christ himself." (1 Cor. 3:11)

Kyrklig samling (The Church Coalition for the Bible and the Confession) wants to continue to play the role as the mouthpiece of the truth. I therefore appeal for support for our work, seeking to be a meeting place for all those in our church who desire that the only guiding principle for the church should be the Bible and the Confessional Documents of the Church of Sweden, as the opening paragraph of our constitution puts it.

MAY THE LORD PROTECT AND KEEP US ALL

Yngve Kalin
Chairman,
The Church Coalition for the Bible and the Confession

Translation: 2006 © Sr Gerd Swensson, Te Deum
2006 © Yngve Kalin