This is a comment submitted by Shawn Stafford, in reply to this post. I’m including it in its own entry because the formatting available in comments is so limited that it doesn’t do the comment justice. Also, the post was so long ago, the comment could easily be overlooked. Without further ado…
Perhaps a memorial would be in order here. I was thinking along the lines of:
Whereas the 2007 ELS Convention elected an appeals commission to hear the appeal of the suspension of St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Iowa, and
Whereas by doing so the synod acknowledged that a suspension had taken place and that an appeal should be heard in this case, and
Whereas, the appeals commission reported that there was no suspension in this case and therefore no grounds for an appeal, and
Whereas the 2007 ELS Convention floor committee on membership rejected a memorial by the Florida circuit winkel stating that there was no suspension in this case and therefore no grounds for an appeal,
Therefore, be it resolved that the synod in convention reject the conclusions of the appeals commission in the case of St. Timothy since it has rejected its purpose given at the 2007 convention, namely to hear the appeal of St. Timothy’s suspension, and further,
Be it resolved that another appeal commission be elected to carry out the directive of the 2007 ELS Convention in hearing the appeal of the suspension of St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Williamsburg, Iowa.
What do y’all think?
Shawn
Shawn,
Your memorial is out of odor. That’s good, because we don’t need no stinkin’ memorials, anyway. Those with more sensitive nostrils have already noted that something is rotten in Denmark.
Yet I thought its reasoning was pretty good. The result, though, has been enigmatical. Maybe we should change the Synod Handbook so that instead of calling it an “Appeals Commission” it should be called a “Cover Your Appeals Commission.”
Jesse-
It was interesting to note the number of guideline changes at the convention wrt adopting synodical statements on doctrine and the appeals process. One might conclude that in the past things were not carried out in above the board manner. Then again, being an orthodox synod means never having to say you’re sorry.
Shawn