Protestant church in Germany completely split by homosexuality

KATH.NET - Katholischer Nachrichtendienst

The controversy in Saxony on homosexual partnerships in the rectory escalates. The Protestant Lutheran Church of Saxony has suspended the evangelist and songwriter Lutz Scheufler (Waldenburg) on 13 June from office. This was confirmed by the spokesman of the Church, Matthias Oelke (Dresden) at the request of the Evangelical News Agency, idea. Scheufler had declared together with seven other members of the evangelism team of Saxony that they no longer recognised the spiritual direction of the Church of Saxony governing bodies. Moreover, he called for the convocation of a Confessional Synod.

Among the signers of the Declaration includes the well-known evangelist and retired pastor Theo Lehmann (Chemnitz), who regularly had the highest visitor numbers (up to 5000) in his church during DDR times. The basis for the decision was the move of the synod and church leadership to allow in specific individual cases to open clergy houses to homosexual partnerships. As church spokesman Oelke said, Scheufler with an appeal to establish a Confessional Synod had called for division. "This can not be left without adequate response." If a staff member of the Church puts legal principles in question, a "suspension of the least" is required. One must give the person concerned an opportunity to clarify his relationship with the Church, "before further conclusions are drawn under human resources legislation."

Scheufler: I'm staying in the church

as Scheufler opposite idea, told him the Church was prohibited from speaking until further notice, as the region's youth officer, and preaching on behalf of the Church. In the next week, there should be a discussion between him and the State Youth Pastor Tobias Bilz in Dresden, according to Scheufler. He was still not going to leave the church and his home church in Waldenburg. What the consequences would be for the other signatories who are in church service, Scheuflercould not say. “Since everyone has a different boss, these may be of different timings" The Evangelist Andreas Riedel (Vielau near Zwickau) had his preaching permission withdrawn as a reaction to the statement. He can no longer lead services in the Church of Saxony.

Bohl: "disloyalty to the governing bodies"

Bishop Jochen Bohl (Dresden) stated on 11June that the vote of the evangelism team could not otherwise be understood "as a revocation of the communion" because they refuse dialogue. The "disloyalty to the governing bodies" and the "call for splitting the country church," he described as "unprecedented."

The statement was also arrogant, because it did not allow for the different understandings, which Christians have come to in their efforts to understand the Scriptures. According to Bohl, the Synod with their decisions have explicitly taken into account their "responsibility for the unity of the Church."

Ex-Church Council member Bishop Bohl is the schismatic

Scheufler and the Saxony evangelism team received support from the member of the church council and Synod of the Saxon church, Wilfried Gotter (Rossau ). The manager of the Saxony Friends of Israel slams Bohl. “In my view, it is the church causes the schism and not the evangelism team, whose reference point is the validity of the Bible". That an ethical issue had no importance for salvation, as the church leaders say, is "a blatant lie "." For there is a difference if I act in ignorance or whether I knowingly distort the commandments and words of God and pour them into church pronouncements "

He was thankful that the evangelism team had born witness" so clearly to the one hundred percent binding of the word God. “A structural unit such as a regional church may also quietly split". But this was not the end of Christianity in Saxony, according to Gotter, who resigned in 2000 from the Church and now heads a Baptist church.

Cathcon- the idea of a Confessing Synod will raise some very unpleasant memories in the church from Nazi times.  The schismatics in those days when all turned Nazi were, like St Athanasius when all turned Aryan,  in the right.