Web version  |  Manage your LCA eNews subscriptions, or unsubscribe  |  Unsubscribe from this List

HEARTLAND - eNews from LCA Bishop John Henderson

17 February 2015

Message to Australian Coptic Bishops

This morning I have sent the following message to the leaders of Australia’s Coptic Christian Community:

Your Graces Suriel and Daniel,

On behalf of the Lutheran Church of Australia I write to express my sympathy and convey my sorrow to the Coptic community upon the reports of the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya.

Words cannot express the revulsion we feel at such brutal, senseless, and indiscriminate violence committed against the Egyptian community, Coptic Christians, and the global community generally. Violence begets violence, and it can only cause an escalation in the destructive cycle which already affects to many people in so many negative ways.

Our Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Our prayers and thoughts are with you, and we pray for the families and communities of those whose lives have been destroyed.

Your brother in Christ,

The Revd John Henderson
Bishop | Lutheran Church of Australia

Circulation of ‘A Covenant to Promote Biblical Renewal’

Many pastors and congregations in the LCA have recently received an unsolicited email with the subject, “A Covenant to Promote Biblical Renewal”. The Covenant and its cover-letter would have arrived as a personal message under the signature of Dr Greg Lockwood.

There is much fine material in the text of the Covenant to which I am sure we can all agree. Reaffirming the Scriptural and Confessional stance we have agreed to as the Lutheran Church of Australia is a good thing. Some will congratulate the authors on that basis alone.

There are also sections of the Covenant where many will disagree, regarding it as going further than either the Lutheran Confessions or the Theses of Agreement. A large number will object to it on that basis, regarding it as unnecessary and divisive since our existing documents already state these things so well.

To allow you to make that decision for yourself, the bishops had agreed to publish the document on the Ordination We’re Listening website. Before they could do so, however, they found it had already been distributed from the email address of an individual pastor. If you didn’t receive it that way, you can find it on the OWL website, http://owl.lca.org.au/, or you can find it by going in through the LCA website, http://lca.org.au.

The LCA continues to seek a God-pleasing, faithful, and defensible outcome at our Convention. We are committed to studying Scripture with honesty and integrity, remaining faithful to our Lutheran Confessions. We are, after all, one body in our Saviour Jesus Christ, and according to the admonition of the Apostle, we are to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in us, enabling us both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12,13)

On behalf of the church, the College of Bishops, and the General Church Council, continue to work toward this end.

Using LAMP and how to communicate with the church

A number of pastors and congregational leaders feel that their privacy has been breached through the receipt of unsolicited emails from individuals using information that may have been drawn out of the LAMP system.

LAMP is a hugely beneficial facility which has enhanced communication and the transfer of information throughout the church. LAMP provides a communication mechanism between LCA organisations and people and the National and District offices. It is not intended for private or personal use.

I therefore apologise to those who feel their privacy may have been breached by the use of information which you have entrusted to LAMP. If that includes you, you are entitled to report such misuse to the LAMP administrator using the details available on the site.

I remind all users of LAMP to use it for the purposes for which it is intended, and not to exceed the authorisation which you have been granted through access to the system. If you have a message you believe needs to be heard by the whole church, please contact LCA Communications (linda.macqueen@lca.org.au)  to discuss having your message included in the church’s established news bulletins.

 

 

Bishop John Henderson
Adelaide
15 February 2015


To change your email address, subscribe to other eNews lists, or to unsubscribe, please click here
(LCA pastors and lay workers are automatically included on this list and are required to remain subscribed.)

Visit the Lutheran Church of Australia website

197 Archer Street
North Adelaide SA 5006

P: +61 (0)8 8267 7300
E: admin@lca.org.au
W: www.lca.org.au