Word: synods
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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RETURN THE EXILES! read a Holy Week placard carried by one of the 200 protesters in front of the St. Louis headquarters of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The demonstration was aimed at Dr. Jacob A.O. Preus, conservative head of the denomination, who this month fired four district presidents (roughly equivalent to bishops). Their sin: ordaining graduates of Seminex, the breakaway school from the synod's Concordia Seminary that was founded during the Lutherans' long-running doctrinal dispute over biblical interpretation (TIME, March 4, 1974). The dismissed leaders, who favor a flexible view of the Scriptures, head three...
...Christmas season seems no time for churchly bloodletting. Rock-ribbed conservative President Jacob A.O. Preus, 55, of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has decided against ousting one of the district presidents (rough equivalent of a bishop) who insist on recognizing the ordinations of graduates of the rebel liberal school known as "Seminex." Last July the church's convention authorized Preus to dump dissident district presidents 60 days before they were up for reelection. Herman Neunaber of the Southern Illinois District was the first to reach such a deadline. But last week Preus chose "counseling and brotherly admonition" for Neunaber...
...this might be treated as one man's opinion were not Jack Preus also president of the 2.8 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. For six years, mustering a solid majority of conservatives in his church, Preus has been increasingly successful in making such scriptural fundamentalism (TIME cover, Dec. 30) the single acceptable norm for the church's clergy. Last week, at the denomination's biennial convention in Anaheim, Calif, he won another victory. The delegates voted to give him the power to depose a group of dissident leaders: eight of the church...
...Synod seemed to be moving slowly in the same direction. Attempting to tighten discipline and doctrine on what he saw as a drifting ship, Preus cracked down. His main targets were faculty members of the denomination's major academic arm, Concordia Seminary of St. Louis. These teachers, who in the ensuing debate styled themselves moderates, take a less rigid view of the Bible, accepting modern interpretation that explains the story of Adam and Eve, for instance, less as history than myth. In 1974 Preus won the ouster of the seminary's president, the Rev. John H. Tietjen...
...split does occur, it is uncertain how many would leave the Missouri Synod. Tietjen predicts that more than 1,500 congregations will depart. Others put the figure much lower, at a maximum of 500 congregations encompassing some 250,000 members. Whatever happens, the moderates themselves reject the word schism...