- CCM Verax Launch on Wednesday, 07 November 2001
- CCM Verax Publicizes ELCA Ecumenical Grand Deception
- ELCA Parishes Informed of Ecumenical Grand Deception
- CCM Verax "Epiphany Email Extravaganza"
- CCM Becomes More Controversial
- CCM Verax Appeals to Lutheran World Leaders for Support
- Shock as ELCA Proposes to Drop Reformation Day
- Disbelief as Lutherans Abandon Reformation Day
- Further Objections to ELCA Cancelling Reformation Day
- International Lutheran Community Responding to US Lutheran Ecumneical "Grand Deception"
- CCM Verax International Newsletter - Lent 2003 Edition (published)
- Proosed Public Debate at 10th Assembly of LWF
- LWF General Secretary Noko involved in ELCA Ecumenical Scandal
- ELCA Moral Leader in "Mitergate" Ecumenical Scandal
- ELCA Mitergate Scandal - Justification by Historic Episcopacy
- ELCA Moral Leader Runs from Mitergate Scandal Debate
- ELCA Mitergate Debate - Call to Lutherans Worldwide For Help
- Call for Suspension of ELCA Membership in Lutheran World Federation
- Sydney Diocese Anglicans vs. ELCA Mitergate Lutherans
- The ELCA and its new "Hypocrite Episcopate"
- ELCA Makes Historic Ecumenical U-Turn
- ELCA / LWF Perpetuate Fallacies about “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (JDDJ)
- CCM Verax Communiqué to LWF Member Churches
Date: 09 May 2003 - For Immediate Release
CCM Verax Information Service
Title: ELCA MITERGATE SCANDAL - JUSTIFICATION BY HISTORIC EPISCOPACY
The ecumenical scandal in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), known as "Mitergate," is turning the denomination's central doctrine on its head. Traditionally, Lutherans have centred their theological existence on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. However, since the passage of Called to Common Mission (CCM), the full communion agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church in the USA, this teaching has been cast aside. ("Mitergate" is a play on the term for a pointy bishop's hat, a miter, and the Watergate Affair which caused the resignation of US President Nixon in 1974).
Lutherans hold that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls. When the German monk and theologian, Martin Luther, "rediscovered" the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in the sixteenth-century, the Reformation began. Through his study of the Bible, Luther came to understand that sinners are made right or just (thus justification) by God's grace through faith alone. For Lutherans, justification happens apart from human attempts to fulfil the demands of religious laws. Thus, salvation is a gift freely given in faith and is not something earned by human efforts (works righteousness).
Nevertheless, in order to become "right" for full communion with the Episcopal Church, CCM dictates that the ELCA must adopt Anglican-style bishops in tactile succession, also called "historic episcopacy." The Anglican "historic episcopate" is anchored in seventeenth-century laws of religious intolerance which were enforced through all manner of brutality, causing much suffering and death. The US Pilgrim Fathers came to America to escape this oppression.
In order to get the ELCA 1999 Churchwide Assembly to adopt this tradition, ELCA leaders deceived voters by telling them that the Lutheran Reformers "deeply desired" an "historic episcopate" based on the laws of the Episcopal Church. Research published in January 2002 shows this claim to be false and known to be false at the time. CCM Verax is working to expose this "grand deception" used to secure the passage of CCM in the ELCA.
On 26 March 2003, CCM Verax Administrator, Dr. Mark Menacher, challenged the ELCA Presiding Bishop to debate the "grand deception" in CCM at the 10th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to be held in July 2003 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
In reaction to Hanson's repeated failure to respond, Dr. Menacher comments,
"CCM's doctrine of Justification by Historic Episcopacy could not
be further from the truth, intentions, or theology of the Lutheran Reformers.
Bishop Hanson, who now shares the Anglican historic episcopate, must uphold
its principles of religious intolerance. Bishop Hanson is now 'right'
enough for the Episcopal Church. Unfortunately, almost every child knows
that lying and cheating people is wrong, especially in the church. That
is why Bishop Hanson refuses to respond to the 'grand deception' in the
ELCA's Mitergate scandal."
For additional information, contact:
Pastor Mark D. Menacher,
PhD
CCM Verax
PO Box 26
Au Gres, MI 48703 0026 (USA)
+1 989 876 2764 (home)
+1 989 876 7415 (church)
mdmenacher@ccmverax.org
http://www.ccmverax.org
Editor:
Pastor
Mark D. Menacher, PhD, CCM Verax, 13823 Olive Grove Place , Poway, CA 92064 (USA)
+1 619-463-6633 (church) e-mail: mdmenacher@ccmverax.org
website: http://www.ccmverax.org
