Sorry...stupid questions

[Robbie_James_Francis]

Hi again. :wave:

I just had a few questions about Lutheranism...they're pretty basic I suppose so I apologise for my ignorance!

What are the "Confessions" and what are "Confessional Lutherans" exactly? I assume the two things are related...

What are the different branches of Lutheranism and what exactly do they differ on? What's the history of it all?

Do the different branches of Lutheranism worship together or seperately?

Thanks guys! :thumbsup:

In Christ Our Lord and Saviour,

Robbie :liturgy:

[SPALATIN]

Hi again. :wave:

I just had a few questions about Lutheranism...they're pretty basic I suppose so I apologise for my ignorance!

What are the "Confessions" and what are "Confessional Lutherans" exactly? I assume the two things are related...

What are the different branches of Lutheranism and what exactly do they differ on? What's the history of it all?

Do the different branches of Lutheranism worship together or seperately?

Thanks guys! :thumbsup:

In Christ Our Lord and Saviour,

Robbie :liturgy:

In 1530, Martin Luther's friend Phillip Melanchthon wrote and presented the Augsburg Confessions to HRE Charles V in Augsburg, Germany. This was backed up by the Lutheran Princes. These confessions are part of and are included in a larger volume that include Luther's Small and Large Catechisms, Augsburg Confessions, Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Smalcald Articles, Formula of Concord, Epitome of the Formula of Concord and the Ecumenical Creeds.

Lutheran churches are joined together to become a "Synod" which is a greek word meaning "walking together" In the US there are at least 4 main synods ranging from liberal to very conservative. All consider themselves to be confessional to a degree but some are more confessional (they abide by the Confessions) than others.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS)
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)
Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS)

there are some smaller synods and associations that are not part of these synods. America has about 9-10 million people professing Lutheranism as their brand of christianity.

The ELCA ordains women as Pastors. they also give women the right to vote on all congregational matters. The ELCA is also considering the issue of active homosexuals being ordained and same sex marriages. The other synods see Homosexuality as a sin and abomination of God's word.

The LCMS does not ordain women but gives each congregation the right to autonomy on the issue of women's suffrage.

The WELS and ELS do not ordain women nor are they allowed to vote in congregational matters.

The ELCA will commune and worship with just about anyone. The LCMS says each church can do as they please though the synod endorses close(d) communion and do not at present have communion/Altar worship with ELCA or the other two.

The WELS and ELS have communion with each other but not with the ELCA or LCMS

Does this help?

[Robbie_James_Francis]

Thanks! :) That was really helpful. :thumbsup:

So is it just the ordination of women and active homosexuals on which the different branches disagree?

What about the Lutheran Church in the rest of the world?

Do Lutherans believe the collection of Confessions etc. to be divinely inspired and treat them as Scripture (whilst obviously they are subject to Scripture)?

Peace be with you all :hug:

Robbie

[SemStudent08]

Thanks! :) That was really helpful. :thumbsup:

So is it just the ordination of women and active homosexuals on which the different branches disagree?

This is, perhaps, an over-simplification. There are more differences than just those two (as a matter of fact there is quite a bit of difference just within the ELCA on homosexuality). Below are some sites that discuss the differences between the synods -

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denominations/lutheranism.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheran
http://www.recipeland.com/encyclopaedia/index.php/Lutheran

Ok, those are websites that aren't affilited with one of the synods. Below are links to what each synod says are the main differences -

http://www.elca.org/co/faq/elcalcms.html
http://www.lcms.org/belief/whatabout/wa_elca-lcms.pdf
http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=11&cuItem_itemID=8596



What about the Lutheran Church in the rest of the world?

Well, I'll just give you another link on this one(to the LWF - Lutheran World Federation, to which the ELCA belongs), I'm sure my LCMS and WELS counterparts on CF can give you links to similar international orginizations.

http://www.lutheranworld.org/Welcome.EN.html



Do Lutherans believe the collection of Confessions etc. to be divinely inspired and treat them as Scripture (whilst obviously they are subject to Scripture)?


Divinely inspired? Or Scripture? Only insofar as the Confessions quote Scripture. One of the main desires of the authors of the Confessions was to ground them fairly clearly in Scripture. They offer an understanding of Scripture that expresses some fundamental themes found within Scripture itself (Justification by God's grace alone, for example).

Before I go too far into the Confessions, let me point you to - http://www.bookofconcord.org/

One last thing, Communion for the ELCA, is extended to all of the Baptized who profess faith in Jesus Christ's life-giving death and resurrection. I bring this up primarily because we just got into this discussion in my Liturgics class. The question was brought up - What to do if an un-baptized person took Communion came up in class. And what was eventually settled on was an invitation should be extended for FULL participation in Communion which can only be realized in participating as a Baptized member. Anyway, that's all I have right now...Hope it helps.

[RedneckAnglican]

for a different perspective on what's going on in the ELCA you might want to go to

http://www.wordalone.com/

for the more conservative ELCA Lutheran...

[revjpw]

I'm sure my LCMS and WELS counterparts on CF can give you links to similar international orginizations.

The LCMS is a member of the International Lutheran Council.
Web site:
http://www.ilc-online.org/

[Rechtgläubig]

I'm sure my LCMS and WELS counterparts on CF can give you links to similar international orginizations.

WELS is a member of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference:
http://www.celc.info/cgi-bin/home.cgi?whoarewe


:wave:

[Robbie_James_Francis]

Thanks guys! This stuff has been really useful! :thumbsup: :) :clap: