By Staff
NILES- A Niles pastor arrived home on Sunday, May 18th from meetings with Scandinavian church leaders. Pastor John S. Rutowicz of St. Boniface Evangelical Lutheran Church, Niles, Michigan travelled to Siitamaja Orivesi, Finland as a member of a three man delegation pursuing closer ties with the Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland. Pastor Rutowicz is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA), a small church body which is made up of Lutheran pastors and parishes which have left the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He, Bishop James D. Heiser, and Deacon Jeffery Ahonen travelled to Finland to meet with three members of the Finnish church. The Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland (STLK) is also a small dissenting Lutheran church body (organized in 1928) which at one time had been in fellowship with the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
Since both the American and Finnish bodies had broken with the LCMS over its recent trending towards more liberal theology, they both thought that they might have much in common. Pastor Kimmo Nrhi (President of the STLK), Pastor Markku Srel (leading theologian), and Pastor Ned Brockwell (former American pastor), met with the three American pastors from May 14 until the 16. A number of different doctrinal topics were discussed, and by the end of the three days all members were satisfied that there were no issues that prevented full fellowship between their church bodies.
The Finnish pastors will now advocate for the fellowship agreement with the church body's board of directors, and the parishes. They were confident that the agreement would be signed within one calendar year.
Pastor Rutowicz had hosted a meeting of dissenting Lutheran pastors on the Niles campus of Southwestern Michigan College back in July of 2005. That meeting was a preliminary organizational meeting for the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA), which was founded the following year in Malone, Texas. The July 2005 meeting also produced one of the doctrinal guides of the new church body known as the "Niles Theses." These theses were among the documents examined during the meetings in Finland.
Pastor Rutowicz and the parishioners of St. Boniface Church meet each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. for Divine Service at the Residential Services building, 104 N. Third S., Niles. This week Pastor Rutowicz will be meeting with the other ELDoNA pastors for their annual diocesan synod in Richmond, Mo.
There they will be accepting two more pastors and parishes into their diocese from the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Their hope is to continue their slow but steady growth of pastors and parishes leaving the LCMS, and to plant new churches that will continue the traditional teachings of the Lutheran Church.