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Contents
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Commission for a Renewed Lutheran
Church
on ELCA website
ELCA.org/CRLC
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The following is curated for your consideration.
Governing Documents
High Level Documents
- Constitution, Bylaws, and
Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA (2022) —
includes the governing documents for the Churchwide
Expression, the Constitution for Synods (with
required provisions), and the Model Constitution for
Congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America. N.B., both the Constitution
for Synods and the Model Constitution for
Congregations contain both required provisions
(marked with a † for synods and an * for congregations)
and non-required provisions. A given synod's
constitution or congregation's constitution may vary.
Policy Documents
Those governing instruments that are subordinate to the Constitution,
Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions. Frequently,
policy documents are adopted by the Church Council under
authorization to do so in the Constitution, Bylaws,
and Continuing Resolutions.
- Manual of Policies and Procedures
for Management of the Rosters of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (2022) — a.k.a.
"Roster Manual." This is a policy document and is
written as such. Everything one might want to know about
the rosters of ministry in the ELCA. Includes items
related to entry onto the rosters (ordination),
limitations on types of calls, regular calls vs. calls
to specialized ministry, on-leave from call, retirement,
disability, ecumenical service, retirement, and removal
from the roster. Fleshes out in detail those things that
are named in the Constitution, Bylaws, and
Continuing Resolutions.
- Candidacy Manual (2019) —
This is a policy document and is written as such.
Everything one might want to know about the candidacy
process for ministers of Word & Sacrament and
Ministers of Word & service. This document covers
all those preparing for the ministry and ultimately
their examination and approval for ordination.
Churchwide Assembly Actions
- "Report of the Memorials Committee."
2022 Pre-assembly Report, Section I. Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America. (see p.48) — Provides those
memorials related to the work of this Commission,
including the memorials submitted by synods, the
background material from the Memorials Committee, and
the recommendation of the Memorials Committee.
- "Legislative Update, Tuesday, August 9,
2022." Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
(see p.4) — Final form of the recommendation of the
Memorials Committee (a substitution by the chairs), a
floor amendment, and adoption of amended form. This does
not include full floor debate. It is a summary of
actions.
- "Reports and Records: Assembly Minutes."
2022 Churchwide Assembly 2022. Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America. (see pp. 78-87) —Full report and
floor debate on matters related to the authorization of
this Commission.
Essays & Articles
- Riegel, Matthew Lynn. "Framing the Question (Bishop's Report,
Part 2)." Proceedings of the Thirty-Third
Annual Assembly of the West Virginia – Western
Maryland Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
16 October 2019. —An essay exploring whether a
particular synod should exist in terms of the historic
rationale for synodical polity in America.
- Riegel, Matthew Lynn. "The
Prince-Bishop in Augustana XXVIII." Paper
for the Academy of Bishops, 6 January 2023. — An
exegesis of the critical article in the Augsburg
Confession (1530) relating to ecclesiastical office and
civil office when the two offices are occupied by the
same person. As an exegetical exercise, this paper
situations Melanchthon's arguments within the context of
political theory at the time of the Reformation.
- Schmucker, B.M. "The
Organization of the Congregation in the Early Lutheran
Churches in America," Lutheran Church Review
(July 1887). —An historic historical study of the
origins and development of congregational polity among
Lutheran churches in America. Divorced from the
state-church of Europe, American Lutherans had to
largely fend for themselves. A limitation of this study
is its terminus ad quem of 1887. Still, it
offers insight into a process that will be repeated.
Monographs
- Almen, Lowell G. One Great Cloud of Witnesses! You
and Your Congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America. Minneapolis: Augsburg
Fortress, 2001. — A comprehensive introduction to
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as it
existed from up to 2000. Explores origins and the
works of the churchwide expression, synods,
congregations, various ministries, and the people.
- Fortenbaugh, Robert. The Development of the Synodical
Polity of the Lutheran Church in America, to 1829.
Ph.D. dissertation University of Pennsylvania, 1926. —The
seminal and definitive work that dovetails nicely with
Beale Melanchthon Schmucker's work on the development
of congregational polity. Not having the organized
state-church in the Americas (with the exception of
the New Sweden Colony), American Lutherans realized
that congregations would benefit from cooperation.
This work traces those early efforts to organize
synodical polity, ultimately leading to the
development of suprasynodical polity.
- The New Church Debate: Issues
Facing American Lutheranism. Edited and with
introduction by Carl E. Braaten. Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1983. — A collection of papers given at a
conference of theologians held in the early days of
the work of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church.
A variety of topics are addressed with a high degree
of honesty about the challenges of bringing together
three churches to form on in the context of the late
twentieth century.
- Olson, Kathryn Marie. "Toward Uniting
a Fellowship Divided: A Dramatistic Analysis of the
Constitution-writing Process of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America." Ph.D. dissertation
Northwestern University, 1987. — A study in
rhetoric in which the language and arguments employed
by the members of the Commission for a New Lutheran
Church are examined in light of the most hotly
contested issues before the Commission. Especially
useful in understanding the struggles encountered in
forming the new church and revealing in terms of the
ongoing difficulties of being one church.
Unfortunately, this work is not available in a public
domain source. It can be secured through inter-library
loan or through Proquest (a dissertation service). It
may be possible to get permission for reproduction.
- Trexler, Edgar. Anatomy of a Merger: People,
Dynamics, and Decisions that Shaped the ELCA.
Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1991. —Not as scholarly as
Olson and certainly lacking the particular interest in
rhetoric. A good study of the merger nonetheless.
Fairly well-balanced.
Reports
- Report & Recommendations of the Commission for
a New Lutheran Church, 29 August 1986. — A
digital version is not online but could probably be
produced by asking the ELCA Archives for it. Should be
readily available in any synod office among its
collection of past proceedings. Culmination of the
work of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church.
- "Report of the
'Living into the Future Together: Renewing the Ecology
of the ELCA' Task Force." With accompanying
appendices. In 2011 Pre-Assembly Report, 2011. —
Facing significant institutional challenges, the
Living into the Future Together Task Force asked how
we might continue as the ELCA in the midst of those
challenges.
Other resources may be added over time, so check back.
Additionally, if you would like to suggest a resource, contact +Riegel.
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