ELCA Lutheran AMA

Welcome to the ECLA AMA! Your hosts are u/best_of_badgers and u/Chiropx. We both are working today, but we'll do our best to keep up with the questions! We'll try to take care of anything lingering this evening.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was created in 1988 from the merger of three previous Lutheran bodies. We are the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States, with around four million members. We consider ourself a mainline Protestant denomination.

Core beliefs:

• Sacraments: Like all Lutherans, the ELCA emphasizes the two-and-a-half sacraments of baptism, confession, and communion. We believe that these sacraments are effective, and not merely signs or symbols. People are actually spiritually changed by baptism and the Eucharist is actually the real body and blood of Christ "in, with, and under" the bread and wine. Confession and absolution are usually considered an extension of baptism, as they are a return to that pristine state. Participation in the sacraments is considered a means of grace and a vital part of the Christian life.

• Scripture: Scripture is proclaimed weekly as the inspired Word of God. It is our authoritative source and norm for the gospel, faith, and life. We consider the promises of God to be the most important aspect of Scripture. Like most mainline groups, we do not believe the Scriptures to be inerrant. That is, we read it seriously but not literally. We do not insist, for example, on a young-earth reading of Genesis. We accept historical-critical approaches to the text as a valid (but not the only valid) way of reading it. We often discuss a broad picture of the story of Scripture rather than focusing on specific details. We typically follow the Revised Common Lectionary in our choice of liturgical readings. Like most Protestants, ELCA Lutherans do not include the deuterocanon in our Old Testament.

• Social Statements: The ELCA publishes its stances on social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and the environment in the Social Statements section of its website. Social Statements are adopted at the triennial churchwide assembly by a two-thirds vote. Our social views are nuanced, allowing that individual congregations and believers can meaningfully and faithfully disagree on the subjects presented.

• Ecumenical Relations: The ELCA participates in the Lutheran World Federation. Both through our role in the LWF and individually in the United States, the ELCA has initiated and participated in ecumenical talks with a number of other denominations. We have full communion relationships with most other mainline denominations in the United States. Additionally, our ecumenical talks with the Roman Catholic church have revealed that we have far more in common than previously suspected. We recently published the important document Declaration on the Way with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The goal of our ecumenical talks is intercommunion, not necessarily unification.

• Differences from other Lutherans: We differ somewhat from some other Lutherans in the way we interpret the documents called the Lutheran Confessions. Some Lutherans take a quia stance on the documents, an assertion that those documents reflect a true Biblical faith. ELCA Lutherans take a quatenus stance on the documents, meaning that we accept their teachings insofar as they reflect a true Biblical faith. We all take the Confessions quite seriously, but not in the same way. This difference means that we can recognize the Biblical faith of others without necessarily insisting on a high degree of agreement on Lutheran specifics. The quatenus stance is common among LWF members.

• Open Communion: We believe that all Christians are the one body of Christ, so we invite all baptized believers to our Table to share in the Eucharist with us.

You can read more about the ELCA on our website at http://www.elca.org.

Edit to add: We've apparently got a subreddit over at r/elca, so go check it out and subscribe if you're interested!

u/best_of_badgers: I've been a member of the ELCA for about six years. My religious history is fairly diverse. I grew up in a mainline Presbyterian church, became a Biblical fundamentalist for about a decade, and then abandoned that for the ELCA. I am strongly drawn toward the Catholic side of Lutheranism, so I follow the Lutheran-Roman Catholic ecumenical talks with some excitement. I am in my mid 30s, have two kids, and read dense theology for fun.

u/Chiropx: I'm a life long Lutheran, with an MDiv from one of our ELCA seminaries and have continued graduate work pursuing a ThM.