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The Vanguard (Vol. 29, No. 4), May 1982, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

In an interview published in The Atlantic, budget director David Stockman contrasted the powerful forces possessing "weak claims " to federal funds with the ' 'weak clients" having powerful claims to public support. The current state of the economy has intensified the competition between these two groups. Those who lack the power to press their strong claims for just treatment - the elderly poor, the handicapped, the disabled , children and their low income mothers - are being asked again this year to bear more than their share in the drive to cut back federal spending.

The Vanguard (Vol. 29, No. 5), June 1982, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

"Within the last ten days, there have been five suicide attempts in the Krome detention center," said Leticia Godoy, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) staff person in Miami concerning Haitian refugees imprisoned by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). "That just gives you some idea of how bad the situation is."

At last report, more than 2,000 Haitians have been languishing in detention as advocacy continues for their release - and as controversy rages on over their legal status here.

The Vanguard (Vol. 29, No. 6), July 1982, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

The Rev. Jonathan C. Nelson, a University of Washington Luther an Campus pastor, who intends to get arrested for his planned protest of the arrival of a Trident nuclear submarine at a naval base near Seattle, plans to resign after he is imprisoned.

When the Trident submarine arrives in Puget Sound later this year, Nelson and other protestors (including Nelson's mother) plan to enter the restricted waters around the base in small boats forming a symbolic blockade to stop the Trident from docking.

The Vanguard (Vol. 29, No. 2), Mar 1982, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

"The National Indian Lutheran Board has finished another busy and very productive year of operation. During this last year our involvement has continued in terms of promoting positive national policy, work with different Lutheran constituencies, participating with other ethnic groups, continuation of the National Indian Lutheran Board (NILB) grant program, and working as a co-worker with other national Indian organizations.''

That's how Paul Schultz began his annual president's report to the NILB board. More than two dozen board members and consultants attended the three day meeting at Cook Christian Training School in Tempe, AZ.

Valpostscripts (Epiphany 1982), Karl E. Lutze

ValPostScripts

Connecting with the Churches

Valparaiso University will select 16 undergraduate students to work this summer in congregations or church related agencies for a two month period. They will be assigned to institutions or programs in the Midwest.

The students will spend a large share of their time doing work related to the career field for which they are studying (for example, music, nursing, or recreation). They will also be engaged in other work that supports that particular ministry. Participating students will receive academic credit, but, more important, they will learn more about direct involvement in a church related service.

A …

Christian Initiation: Development, Dismemberment, Reintegration, Geoffrey Wainwright

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(excerpt)

Worshipers tend to assume that the patterns of worship that they know have been practiced since time immemorial. A little familiarity with liturgical history soon reveals that that is not in fact the case. You in your churches, with your new Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), have inevitably been introduced to some liturgical history as you had to come to terms with new things that were really old things.

Made, Not Born: The Church As Baptismal, Frank Quinn

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(excerpt)

An editorial in a recent issue of Time magazine notes that the real failures of the past decade have been future planners. Changing scripture slightly, the editorial states: The decade just ended left behind a great many fresh reminders of why prophets have always had difficulty winning honor on their own turf. 1 The decade just ended differed radically from the social, political and economic predictions made for it. The consequence of such failure is that only the fool plays the prophet in the 1980's. So, taking a lesson from the secular sphere, you will understand why I will …

Valpostscripts (Pre-Fall 1981), Karl E. Lutze

ValPostScripts

Came the Summer

There is something almost chilling about the desolate quiet that follows the last days of the school year: the sudden absence of thousands of people, the silencing of the stereos, and the parade of bicycles and cars reduced to an occasional lonely vehicle.

At first there's a sense of relief - a welcome hush following the hectic rush of final exams and the flurry of graduation rituals and the lump-in-the-throat good-byes.

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 9), Nov 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

Concordia Lutheran College of Austin, Texas, has begun a program to equip laypersons for serving in their respective congregations or areas in various forms of ministry

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in its 1977 Dallas convention instructed the college to develop a program that could aid the Hispanic Lutheran congregations in the United States in carrying out their Christian mission by better utilizing the ministry of laypersons interested in serving their Lord, but not able to leave their homes for various reasons, in order to seek preparation for such ministry. The goal of the program is to prepare people without any …

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 6), July 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

On Friday, Oct. 3, 1980, the South Dakota Council of LHRAA died ... and was reborn as a part of the new South Dakota Peace and Justice Center. State LHRAA Coordinators, Bea Friesth and · Ruth Jones, joined with other members to create a Biblically-based ecumenical instrument to work with and for the churches of · South Dakota. (See November 1980 VANGUARD)

Primarily a membership organization, the Center depends largely upon individual support. For 1981, the three priorities determined by a membership poll are: the nuclear issue (arms race, uranium mining, nuclear power); Native American concerns;. and poverty and hunger. …

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 5), June 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

What is the meaning of work? That's the question explored by the participants in the New Wine Exchange conference, "The Working World - What is Good Work?" May 1-3, in Chicago.

Kim Zalent, the coordinator of NWE, planned the conference with the help of several local groups.

The conference's approximately 40 participants heard a presentation by the Rev. Stanley Hallett of Garret Theological Seminary (Evanston, Illinois). Hallett said that the basic assumptions about work need to be reexamined: unlimited population growth, unlimited resources, and access to unlimited land are no longer accurate assumptions. He insists that work can no longer …

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 4), May 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

Lutheran individuals and organizations have joined the thousands of other. civic and religious leaders in expressing dismay at the deaths of 26 black young people in Atlanta.

In early April, the standing committee of the Lutheran Council's Division for Mission and Ministry issued a statement urging Lutheran congregations to "increase their efforts for an end of racial violence in their communities, states, and the nation."

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 2), Mar 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

Repeating an action of two years ago, the Missouri Synod board of directors, meeting the last weekend in February, resolved to notify the Lutheran Council that the synod will discontinue its support of the Council's Indian desk and withdraw its participation from the National Indian Lutheran Board (NILB) as of March 1982.

In taking this action, the board "approved in principle" the recommendations of the synod's Board of Missions-recommendations based on a report of the synod's American Indian Advisory Council (

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 1), Feb 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

"There is some relief that Secretary of Interior James Watt promised to honor the commitment made by Ronald Reagan to respect self-determination and tribal sovereignity. It is a matter of record from his confirmation hearings that as Secretary of Interior, he will uphold the trust responsibility the federal government has with American Indians. This is encouraging."

That's the assessment of Eugene Crawford, director of the National Indian Lutheran Board (NILB) as he looks forward to the operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Department of Interior.

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 8), Oct 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

"There's a need to break the isolation of the students on campus."

Citing that goal, Professor Albert Jabs of Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, described the program he's developed which. involves students in contemporary social issues. Jabs, an LHRAA volunteer, states that a major component of last semester's program included a trip to the state capitol in Columbia.

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 7), Sep 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

In May of this year I attended two important Inter-Lutheran meetings. At the first, a Transcultural Seminar, people representing five ethnic groups (Euro-Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, Orientals and Native Americans) met at Cincinnati to share strategies for a better understanding and relationship between these groups in the

At the second meeting, in St. Louis, members of an Inter-Lutheran Committee for Consultation on Theological Education met to discuss ideas to adapt theological education to the needs of our modern society.

Christian Initiation: Ethics And Eschatology, Robert W. Jensen

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

I did not choose the three terms of my assignment: "initiation", "ethics" and "eschatology." It would take a degree of arrogance that I do not have, to select the universe for one's subject in this fashion. While I did not choose them, I am fortunate in your committee having chosen them. For in fact, as it turns out, the three terms nestle beautifully together and define a field of reflection that I have found enjoyable. Baptism is initiation into the Christian church, an ethical community. And baptism is initiation into the kingdom of God, the eschatological community. And it …

Toward The Renewal Of Christian Initiation In The Parish, Eugene L. Brand

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

The brochure for this year's Institute contained the arresting sentence: "To discuss the question of Christian initiation is, finally, to inquire after the very nature of the church: the issue is of vast ecclesiological significance." The renewed and growing interest in Christian initiation is prompted by a new vision of the church.

The Vanguard (Vol. 28, No. 10), Dec 1981, Lutheran Human Relations Association Of America

The Vanguard

Divestment. Namibia. Haitian refugees.

Those are three of the topics acted upon by the Association of Black Lutherans (ABL) at its biennial conference in Fort Worth Texas.

The conference voted to support divestment from financial institutions and companies that continue to engage in business in South Africa. The 1980 LCA convention in Seattle rejected apartheid and all other forms of racial discrimination but did not ask for divestment. Instead it asked for criteria which would help determine whether total divestment or active shareholder objections were "most effective" strategies.

The Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue: The Year 1980, Avery Dullee

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

Let me begin on a somewhat personal note. In the days when I grew up in New York and New England, I seem to have been surrounded by Protestants of many species, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregationalist, and others. Occasionally I ran into a Roman Catholic, but almost no one I knew was a Lutheran. Luther for me was a figure in history books. Only in the Navy during World War II did I come to know a Lutheran really well, and since he was a devout student of the Bible and of theology, the two of us had an …

Pastor And People: The Holy Ministry And The Ministries, Richard John Neuhaus

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

I have problems with the theme of this Institute, "Church and Ministry". It is the and that troubles me. From that theme one would possibly infer that the church has a ministry, and that we have and in some sense are had by that ministry. I'm intrigued by the work of Stanley Hauerwas, a brilliant ethicist at Notre Dame. Hauerwas says that the church does not have a social ethic: the church is a social ethic. Similarly instead of the church and ministry, I would like to explore the possibility of the church as ministry, because the church is …

Ecclesiology And Ministry As Reflected In Contemporary Ordination Rites, Ralph W. Quere

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

The ministry is a problem and the doctrine of the ministry has been, for Lutheran theology, an insoluble problem. Perhaps the root of the problem is more ecclesiastical than ecclesiological. Robert Paul has suggested that "for every kind of ecclesiology there is a related form of ordained ministry."1 The Lutheran doctrine of the church is clear (although we have some problems defining and numbering sacraments and thus the marks of the church); but our church polity is confused --to say the least. Current discussions of Lutheran unity and possible merger under three different types of organization reflect that lack …

Church And Ministry In The Lutheran Symbols: Serving The Gospel To The Priestly People, David G. Truemper

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

In a particularly eloquent passage in his Forum Letter of 30 May 1979 Richard John Neuhaus had the following to say in a story on the foibles of contemporary American Lutheranism: "We are not dealing with an ideal church. We are dealing with a church so muddled and compromised that only a faithful Lord would dare to own up to it." That is such an apt statement, such an exquisitely Lutheran statement, that I promptly typed it on a file card and stuck it on a crowded little cork-board on my office wall above my typewriter. It stands, therefore, …

Church And Ministry From Hippolytus Tothe Conciliarists: The Ordained Christian Ministry From The Patristic Era To The Late Middle Ages, H Boone Porter

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

From the age of the church fathers through the late middle ages represents nearly three quarters of Christian history. with all that this involves. Nonetheless. I have been asked to survey what I know about the ordained leadership of the Christian church during this long period. Obviously. much must be omitted. I will endeavor at least to touch on matters which interest me and which I hope will interest you.

Charisms And Ordered Ministries In The New Testament: An Overview, Ivan Havener

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

That charisms and ordered ministries existed in the New Testament period is not a matter of dispute today, but what has been and continues to be controversial is the relationship of charisms and structured ministries to one another, when and how ministries became ordered, whether ordered ministries are a legitimate theological development, and whether a variety of ministries and charisms still has a place in the church of today, precisely because a variety of these existed in the New Testament.1 Blanching at the huge amount of literature which has been produced on these topics, I offer here some personal …

Christian Ministry And Ministries, Aidan Kavanagh

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

Surely there is no more complicated task in the repertoire of contemporary theological needs than that of accounting for the traditions of ordained ministries in the churches and the effects these have had on the ministry of the church over the past two thousand years. Should you doubt this, I am confident that all such doubt will be removed during these next two days. I am less confident that my colleagues and I will leave you with any greater clarity than when we started. Should this nonetheless occur, it will be due to their efforts more than to mine. …

On Taking One's Daily Dip In The Font: Baptismal Piety, John H. Tietjen

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

The wife of a faculty colleague of mine has a serious problem with hip deterioration. Daily she goes to the local "Y" for a swim. For her a pool plunge is a matter of life and health. Most baptismal fonts are much too small for such a daily dip. At best they might serve as a bath for robin redbreast who like all birds knows how to bathe in the shallowest of pools. Whether as a pool plunge or as a sprinkling bath, a daily dip in baptism's font is a matter of spiritual life and health. Such a …

Sermon At The Holy Communion, Frederick A. Niedner Jr.

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

I have been told that when you are dying of thirst, you crave salt--not water, but salt. Your last efforts are spent seeking desperately that very thing which will hasten your end. So it is, I fear, with all of our terrible thirsts. The alcoholic, sick and frightened to death of his thirst, finds a temporary peace only in one more day and one more night of stupor. The adulterer, so very ashamed and so strangely alone, finds a momentary solace only in the forgetfulness of just one more forbidden embrace.

Baptism, Confirmation And First Communion: Christian Initiation In The Contemporary Church, Hans Boehringer

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

Made, Not Born, is the title of a remarkable book produced by the remarkable program of liturgical studies conducted at the University of Notre Dame, and also the title of Frank Quinn's keynote address yesterday. The correspondence of the two titles is surely no accident. The notion that Christians are made and not born may well come as a shock not only to Lutherans but to all those Christians that prize the Reformation emphasis on the priority of grace. We have for so long insisted on the gift character of baptism that such a title jars. A Christian is …

Valpostscripts (Christmas 1980), Karl E. Lutze

ValPostScripts

It's estimated that less than 8% of all college students who are Lutheran attend Lutheran schools. There's much to be said in favor of the responsibility of such a vast number (the other 92%) on other campuses to be there as light, leaven, and salt for our Lord. Filling that role isn't always easy for young Christians as they confront a flood of new ideas and divergent life styles in unfamiliar and secular settings.