New Rules for Ordination

The current Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain has changed all the rules concerning ordination. Pastors who were ordained by the previous Bishop have been told they are not really ordained Lutheran Pastors.

Pastors who have been ordained in the last few years have been told that they are not "fully approved" as Lutheran Pastors. The Bishop has even told a Bishop from a Lutheran Church outside of the UK that the Lutheran Church in Great Britain does not ordain pastors except women who come from countries and Lutheran Churches that do not ordain women. That statement was news to the men who have been ordained in the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

Additionally the Bishop has refused to ordain any pastor with more theological education than the Bishop. Unfortunately this eliminates most of the Lutheran Pastors in the world as the Bishop has no degree in theology and most Lutheran Pastors have graduate degrees in theology.

The Bishop also appointed a lay person with no theological or pastoral training to Chair the committee responsible for theological education. This lay person is also appointed to mentor candidates for ordination and guide them in their theological and ministerial formation. Would a doctor be mentored by someone who never went to medical school? Would a solicitor or barrister be mentored by someone who did not read the law?


Is it incompetence? Fear of challenge? Insecurity?

Total Control of St Anne's Lutheran Church

St Anne's Lutheran Church recently shared the news:

"New constitution

At the ECM last Sunday a unanimous decision was made to adopt the Memorandum and Articles, the Constitution, as drafted by the LCIGB and approved by your council.  An amendment was proposed regarding our name. The vote decided our official name as the one in current use: St. Anne's Lutheran Church.

There will be a second ECM after a month has passed to vote again on adopting the Constitution, members will be notified of the date."

Please note: 

• There is no mention of how few people attended the meeting. 

• There is no mention that the Dean, Treasurer, Bishop and Bishop's family are all members of St Anne's and even if they do not attend regularly - they alone make a quorate under the current constitution.

• Unanimous does not report abstentions.

• During the Bishop's time as Pastor of St Anne's Lutheran Church membership records were not kept, there was no membership list and most members of St Anne's Lutheran Church have effectively been removed from the membership by the current leadership by demand of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain who has insisted a "new" membership list be created.

• The new Memorandum and Articles creates Trustees who will now control all aspects of congregational life including the employment of the pastors and doctrine.

• The new Memorandum and Articles places the congregation under the control of the Trustees of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, ignore the history and practice of the congregation and directly contradict the Lutheran Confessions.

The greatest irony is that the news was shared with this quote:

'I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen' (Martin Luther)

Too bad all the people with conscious captive to the Word of God, like Martin Luther, have been forced out of the congregation by the Bishop and Dean of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain!

St Anne's is now only a Lutheran Church by name. It makes many of us weep.

The Illusionists

The Bishop and Dean continue to create the illusion that the Lutheran Church in Great Britain is growing and is a significant church. There are no full-time pastors, no full-time employees - not even a full-time Bishop!

Consider this recent email from the Lutheran Church in Great Britian:

The office is staffed part time on a Monday and Friday, and messages will be picked up on these days.

If you wish us to remove your email address from our mailing list so you do not receive further notifications such as these, please email back to let us know.

With kind regards,

RXXXXXX HXXXXXX

-- 

RXXXXX HXXXXX (nee MXXXX)

Senior Administrative Manager and PA to the Bishop 

E: admin@lutheranchurch.co.uk 

The Lutheran Church in Great Britain has no full-time employees, yet the one employee they have who works two times a week is the Senior Administrative Manager and PA to the Bishop?

And the Senior Administrative Manager and PA to the Bishop will only check messages two times a week. 

The Illusionists are hard at work. The Church if the LWF and the Lutheran Council (or is it the Council of Lutheran Churches) need to recognise the illusion the Dean and the Bishop are creating. 

What would Bishop Jana Jeruma-Grinberga or Dean Tom Bruch say?

Acceptable to Christ? NO - Acceptable to the Government

"Apart from administrative matters, to have a sound faith and financial base is key to church growth."

David Lin, Chair of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

The Forum, Winter/Epiphany 2012 ISSUE 11

The Priorities and Values of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

1. Administrative Matters.

2. Sound Faith

3. Financial Base

Reflecting on the most important work of 2011, David Lin wrote:

"Most significantly, I think, is the congregations' steadily growing compliance of the rules and regulations of the Charity Commission in England and Wales (CC) and Companies House (CH). Our commitment for compliance means that LCiGB will be able to build on a solid ground of structure and enable us to grow in its ministries with an appropriate framework that is acceptable by the government."

The Lutheran Church in Great Britain is built on the "solid ground of structure...acceptable by the government."

Not the solid ground of Christ.

Not the solid ground of Faith.

Not the solid ground of the Word of God.

Not the solid ground of the Bible.

Not the solid ground of the Lutheran Confessions.

Not the solid ground of God.

No, the Lutheran Church in Great Britain is built on the solid ground of administrative matters acceptable to the governments of England and Whales.

Maybe the Lutheran Church in Great Britain needs to consider a new name: The Formerly Lutheran Church Acceptable to the Governments of England and Whales (the FLCAttGEaW).

Is it any wonder the Bishop, Dean, Treasurer and Chair spend thousands of pounds on legal fees punishing pastors and congregations? 

What would Bishop Jana Jeruma-Grinberga or Dean Tom Bruch say?

Demanding Stewardship?

The leadership of Lutheran Church in Great Britain continues to demand payment from member congregations. Although all of the member congregations struggle financially, the leadership demands a share and sometimes more.

Recent demands have been made on congregations that are behind on payments owed, yet the leadership of the LCiGB continues to make demands. The Bishop and Dean do not seem to care if a congregation survives, they just want their money.

The website for St Anne's Lutheran Church

http://www.stanneslutheranchurch.org

Click to see a story that exemplifies the extreme positions of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain and how it has effected one congregation.

HMRC Fines

During the current Bishop's tenure, the Lutheran Church in Great Britain has been substantially penalised for failing to properly report and pay payroll taxes.

More Page Views Every Day!

Paldies mūsu draugiem Latvijā!

Porvoo

The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain believes that the best use of her time is traveling to conference after conference and meeting after meeting hoping and begging that the Church of England will accept the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

Is this the best use of the Bishop's time? Is this what the pastors and members of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain desire?

The Bishop does not care because she will not allow it to be discussed.

Pastors and congregations want to share the Gospel. They want to be Lutheran Christians not members of a state Church.

The Bishop does not care. The Bishop has her own agenda. She has created new rules to require obedience. She will punish those who defy or question her.

The Bishop fails to understand servant leadership, the Lutheran Confessions or the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A Growing Church

On the Lutheran Church in Great Britain's website the following statement is made:

"We are a growing church, with people from all parts of the world worshipping in our congregations."

This is either wishful thinking, delusion or an out right manipulative attempt to deceive those outside the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

Since the Bishop came to office the congregations of the LCiGB have been in decline or have left the LCiGB.

There is a reduction in people attending worship, a reduction in members, a reduction of pastors and a reduction in the number of congregations. The only areas of growth are:

A growth in conflict.
A growth in legalism.
A growth in secrecy.
A growth in rules and regulations.
A growth in penalties.
A growth in useless meetings.
A growth in the number of people denied the opportunity to serve God.
A growth in the power of the Bishop.
A growth in the power of the Dean.
A growth in the LCiGB abilities to take over congregations.
A growth in watering down basic Lutheran Confessions, practices, beliefs and traditions.

Growth?

Merely Incompetence or Deception

After months of claiming problems with the telephone line at the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, the website now proclaims a new telephone number which is preceded by the old telephone number.

Why a new number? Why was the landline not working for months? Does the Lutheran Church in Great Britain fail to pay for services? It wouldn't be surprising if the LCiGB was unable to pay a telephone bill since the Bishop and Dean spend more than half of the annual budget on legal fees.

Why two telephone numbers on the website? Incompetence or is it another form of deception? You decide.

The Call Unheeded

The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain claims to discern the voice of God better than anyone else. Over the last several years many people have met with the Bishop because they have heard the call of God to become a pastor. The majority of whom have been turned away by the Bishop. Why? The Bishop has given various reasons, none of which make sense. However, it is notable that most who were told no (without the opportunity to even meet the proper committee of the LCiGB) were people who were more educated than the Bishop, who challenged the Bishop, or were from non European countries.

The Bishop, who has no degree in theology or the Bible, seems to believe that individuals with degrees in theology are not called by God.

Once she even claimed that the Lutheran Church in Great Britain does not ordain pastors.

She has also claimed that pastors ordained by the previous Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain are not really ordained unless she approves them.

The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain does not seem to understand vocation from the Lutheran Confessions. She also seems to think her opinion is more important than God's or a congregation.

What is the Bishop Hiding?

The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain began her time as Bishop being very open. She regularly updated pastors, members and friends of her activities by email and her blog at http://lutheransuk.wordpress.com/

She no longer does. She not only stopped blogging about her activities she has hidden her blog.

What is she hiding?
Was there something on her blog that was inappropriate? Shameful?
Why hide what you do when you are Bishop?
What does she do as Bishop?

Most of her activities seem to be flying around Europe and Africa misrepresenting the true size and activities of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

She also appears to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince Anglicans and the Church of England that they need to accept the Lutheran Church in Great Britain. She has allowed no theological discussion concerning her need to have the Lutheran Church in Great Britain accepted by the Church of England.

The rest of her time seems to be spent with solicitors to find ways to keep pastors under her thumb and punish those who question her. She has spent thousands and thousands of pounds given to the Lutheran Church in Great Britain on solicitors. Money given to God for ministry is used by the Bishop to attack and punish pastors.

Why does the Council of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain allow the Bishop to ignore her duties as a Bishop? Why do they allow her to spend more than half of the LCIGB annual budget on legal services whilst most of the LCiGB pastors go unpaid?