Every so often we google the name of our church, mostly to measure the effectiveness of our web presence. This week (July 2011) we came across the information that Redeemer Lutheran Church, East Falls, was officially closed by vote of SEPA Synod Council effective June 10, 2010.
No one told us!
We were told we were closed in February of 2008. Nevertheless, we had unchallenged representatives at the 2008 Synod Assembly in May.
We registered for the Synod Assembly in May 2009. We sent registration fees for two people and the names of two representatives and two alternates. Synod challenged one of the representatives. We did not contest this and prepared to send an alternate. Our registration checks were accepted and there were no further challenges.
As the dates for Synod Assembly approached, our congregation took action on an issue which had been discussed for many months. We voted unanimously to withdraw from SEPA Synod and the ELCA and sent a resolution reflecting the vote to the bishop. Our hope was that our resolution would kick in the constitutional period of negotiation, forcing SEPA to work with us.
We were quite accustomed to being totally ignored by SEPA and the bishop, but this time we received an immediate response from Synod’s legal counsel. A letter was faxed to us which told us we could not withdraw because we are officially terminated (early May 2009). There was no mention of a Synod Council vote. The letter went on to say that we could attend but not participate in the Assembly just days away. Official termination, mysteriously imposed, meant we were no longer part of SEPA and the ELCA.
We continued as a congregation as issues went before the secular courts. In the fall of 2009, a judge decided the courts do not have jurisdiction in church cases. Synod lost no time in locking us out of our church on Sunday morning, September 27, 2009. But apparently we were STILL a church, even in their eyes.
If terminating a congregation requires a Synod Council vote, none was recorded until June of 2010. And then the vote was never reported to OUR CONGREGATION! In fact, closing our congregation was never discussed with our congregation!
Apparently, Redeemer was still a congregation when we were denied representation at Synod Assembly in both 2009 and May 2010. Denying representation to even one member questions the validity of the entire Assembly.
This is all so murky because our governing constitutions are not written to work this way. Closing churches is supposed to happen with congregational consent and involvement, not imposed by “trustees” appointed to vote Synod’s way when the Synod knows the congregation disagrees.
SEPA Synod is clearly making rules as it goes. SEPA member churches seem willing to accept shoddy governance — perhaps until it affects them!
Closed or open, part of the ELCA or not, Redeemer continues to meet for worship weekly and pursue ministry projects. We are still a church, meeting and serving continuously since 1891. We have just been locked out of God’s house by SEPA Synod.
And, by the way, our Synod Assembly registration fees were never returned!
