Five years ago, in the parking lot at Carthage College following the Synod Assembly, Pastor Tom Knutson pursued me and laid out a vision of a theological journal for the Metro Chicago Synod.  It was time, he said, for this church to engage seriously the issues that were confronting us as a church, not simply […]

Passage of “Called to Common Mission” by the 1999 Churchwide Assembly has brought a storm of protest organized as the so-called “WordAlone Network.”  A preview of the protest could be seen in heated discussions of the “Mahtomedi Resolution” at synod assemblies last year.  Let’s Talk published the proceedings of a pre-assembly forum at our MCS […]

At first, rain threatened to spoil Reformation Day 1999, but by 9:00 a.m. the sun had dispelled the clouds and an unusually warm day enveloped the historic city of Augsburg, Germany, which would witness yet one more momentous event before sunset.  Bells pealed from churches throughout the city announcing an event of great joy. Those […]

On October 31, 1999, in Augsburg, Germany, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.  A Joint Celebration by sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at Immanuel Lutheran Church […]