CCM Verax Information Service

Date: 12th June 2003 - For Immediate Release

Title: SYDNEY DIOCESE ANGLICANS vs. ELCA MITERGATE LUTHERANS

Anglicans in the Diocese of Sydney, Australia are poised to become more Protestant than the "Mitergate" leadership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH - 28 May 2003) reports that the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church in Australia risks expulsion from the Anglican Communion if the Diocese proceeds with plans to allow lay persons to preside at holy communion. Lay presidency is prohibited by the English Parliament's 1662 Act of Uniformity, but an amendment to Australian state law in 1976 may allow the Diocese to disregard this Act.

SMH Religious Affairs Writer, Kelly Burke, reports, "That amendment ... effectively frees the Sydney Diocese from the Church of England's Act of Uniformity 1662, which states that 'no person whatsoever . . . shall presume to consecrate and administer the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper before such time as he shall be ordained priest'."

While Anglicans in Sydney are preparing to depart from the restrictions of the 1662 Act of Uniformity, Lutherans in the ELCA have done the opposite. In 1999, the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly adopted Called to Common Mission (CCM), a full communion agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church, USA.

The principles for unity in this agreement, as indicated in CCM paragraph 16, are anchored in the 1662 Act of Uniformity. This Act sought to eradicate all non-episcopalian forms of Christianity in England and Wales. Today, this Act serves as the foundation for unity for churches of the Anglican Communion. As a result of CCM, the ELCA is required to conform its structure and ordination practice to principles required by this Act. Consequently, lay presidency at holy communion in the ELCA is also under threat.

In order to get the 1999 Churchwide Assembly to pass CCM, ELCA officials told the denomination's voting members that the Lutheran statements of faith (known as Confessions) written in Germany in 1530-31 expressed a "deep desire" for the Anglican structures and restrictions on ministry enacted in England in 1662. Because of this ecumenical fraud, CCM is now known in the Lutheran world as the ELCA's "Mitergate" scandal.

CCM Verax Administrator, Dr. Mark Menacher, comments, "By advancing lay presidency at holy communion, the Anglicans in the Diocese of Sydney are putting the Word of God before restrictive human laws. In sharp contrast, the ELCA leadership has exchanged the liberating power of God's Word alone for human laws of religious intolerance from the seventeenth-century. The term "Protestant" was coined during the Lutheran Reformation. Clearly, Anglicans in the Diocese of Sydney are proving to be better Protestants than the leaders of the ELCA."


The Sydney Morning Herald article entitled "Subtle and sinful? Sydney Anglicans risk split in Lord's Supper rumpus" is on the Internet at:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/27/1053801396764.html

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, PO Box 26 , Au Gres, MI 48703-0026 (USA)
+1-989-876-2764 (home)    +1-989-876-7415 (church)
e-mail: mdmenacher@ccmverax.org     website: http://www.ccmverax.org