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Date: 23 May 2003 For Immediate Release Title: ELCA MITERGATE DEBATE - CALL TO LUTHERANS WORLDWIDE FOR HELP CCM Verax has issued its second international appeal to leaders of Lutheran World Federation (LWF) churches. The new appeal was made on Friday, 16 May 2003. CCM Verax has called upon the Lutheran world to intervene in the "Mitergate" ecumenical affair which is scandalizing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "Mitergate" refers to Called to Common Mission (CCM), the full communion agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church, USA. CCM Verax contends that "CCM-Mitergate" 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 the ELCA's Presiding Bishop, Mark S. Hanson, to debate the "Mitergate" scandal at the Tenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to be held in July 2003 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In a letter from 06 May 2003, Hanson responded to this challenge and declined to debate CCM. This negative response from the ELCA Presiding Bishop and an earlier negative response from LWF General Secretary, Ishmael Noko, seem to indicate that the ELCA leadership and the LWF central office are collaborating to suppress a full discussion of the "grand deception" in CCM. In order to address this serious scandal, CCM Verax again seeks the help of the international Lutheran community to stop the spread of this ecumenical deception which threatens to split the LWF. CCM Verax has requested that LWF member church leaders assume responsibility for arranging the "Mitergate" debate which Hanson apparently seeks to avoid. CCM Verax Administrator, Dr. Menacher, comments, "Contrary to ELCA and LWF central office attempts to suppress this scandal, CCM is not simply an internal matter in the ELCA. CCM threatens the truth of the gospel and thus the future of the LWF. The ELCA leadership now needs from LWF world leaders the episkopé (oversight) of which CCM so often speaks. The ELCA leadership suffers from a compulsive deception disorder untreatable by internal means." Copy letters of the appeal are available in English and German 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) |