Anglicanism a Lutheran variant ?

[Albion]

So, were you smiling because you called me female?
I'm still trying to find the "via media" in Lutheranism, but it's not in ELCA nor its conservative competitors LCMS and WELS--I tried both in Vacaville. Coming in as a Charismatic, LCMS here is quite dour, and WELS leaves no option to believe the world is older than 6000 years. However, I recently ran into an Association of Free Lutheran Congregations mission right in my home town of Dixon. I attended several months, even the weekly Bible studies, but I could see no future in lay leadership by an 86-year-old and no priest within 80 miles. I never quite got why he left WELS, just why he left ELCA before he went there, other than that he is a real stickler for lay independence over clericalism.

That was my guess as to a motivation. That's the most contentious issue separating those two church bodies.

So how could I in good conscience stay ELCA? Well, I sort of belong there, I'm a Higher Critic and Catholic who can accept the Augsburg Confession and Apology but no more "Reformed" theology than that. They allow women to be ordained, but not practicing homosexuals. No gay "marriage".

That's a very important observation on your part IMHO. Almost every other Lutheran body that you could locate would be more conservative than not just ELCA but LCMS as well. While this might fit with your convictions on some matters, it's likely to go in the opposite direction with others. NALC would probably be an exception, but you've already considered them.

 

[Korah]

I'm STILL considering NALC. Getting there at 9AM 70 miles away is a hindrance, and a priest only comes once a month so communion only then. (The local guy in Dixon--Association of Free Lutheran Congregations--gives communion every week even though a layman. That's REAL independent, I guess.) If I like NALC well enough, maybe I will get on the Steering Committee and make waves.... But we have a good pastor, and we've already been rent by meaningless squabbles and lost membership. How many would we lose over something crucially important?

 

[Korah]

I care plenty about the bible. I just don't agree with your interpretation of it.

Well, I can understand that an ELCA seminarian would not necessarily see eye-to-eye with a septuagenarian convert of Methodist background who converted in turn to RC, ECUSA, and ELCA. We're two generations apart. Worst I suppose, I've lived in California since I was five!