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CCM Verax Information
Service Date: 16 May 2003 For Immediate Release Title: ELCA MORAL LEADER RUNS FROM MITERGATE SCANDAL DEBATE After twenty months of silence, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Mark S. Hanson, has responded to the denomination's Mitergate ecumenical scandal. Mitergate refers to Called to Common Mission (CCM), the full communion agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church. Research published in January 2002 shows that CCM was obtained by the ELCA leadership through "grand deception." CCM Verax (verax - Latin for "speaking truthfully") is seeking to publicize the truth about Mitergate. Hanson was first informed of the "grand deception" in CCM in September, 2001. Despite having designated himself a "moral leader" in relation to war with Iraq, the ELCA's Presiding Bishop has repeatedly ignored what CCM Verax contends is "the greatest act of deception ever cultivated by an ecclesial denomination in the history of North America." In March 2003, CCM Verax Administrator, Dr. Mark D. Menacher, challenged Hanson to debate the Mitergate affair at the Tenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to be held in July 2003 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In response to this challenge dated 06 May 2003, Hanson ignored the documented deception used to pass CCM and declined to debate Mitergate. Recounting the passage of CCM, Hanson writes, "After careful and prayerful consideration by the voting members of the assembly, 'Called to Common Mission' was adopted by a 69.7 percent margin, more than the required two-thirds majority needed to establish a relationship of full communion." CCM Verax Administrator, Menacher, comments, "A vote obtained by fraudulent means is invalid. To recount the passage of CCM without making reference to the grand deception in CCM only perpetuates the deception. Because Bishop Hanson is running away from this Mitergate scandal, CCM Verax is now obliged to ask the leaders of Lutheran World Federation member churches to arrange this debate on the behalf of the ELCA's so-called moral leader." Hanson's letter and CCM Verax's response from 15 May 2003 are on the CCM Verax website. For additional information, contact: Pastor Mark D. Menacher,
PhD
Editor:
Pastor
Mark D. Menacher, PhD, CCM Verax, PO Box 26 , Au Gres, MI 48703-0026 (USA) |