From: "Rev. Robert Wurst Jr. (by way of Rev. Eric J. Stefanski, )" To: Subject: CLIMB: Britain Mission Society update Date: Friday, November 02, 2001 12:54 PM Dear friends of the Britain Mission Society, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia! It's been some time since I have written to you about the help we try to give to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in England (ELCE). That doesn't mean that we haven't been doing some good things :) First, I know that our recent donors have not received your customary thank-you letters. I have been way behind on things and I am afraid that the letters have suffered from a great lack of attention. I will get to them soon. Second, I had a hard drive crash and lost ALL my email addresses. I have been able to rebuild some of them but most are gone. If you would like to receive news on the Society, please drop me a line so that I can add you into my address book again. If you would be interested in having an email group like Rev. Paul McCain's "Cyberbrethren," I could start that up also. Let me know what would be most useful to you. Now to the more important news. Since January, we have been able to help two congregations by purchasing new hymnals for them. The congregation of Luther-Tyndale (Kentish Town, London) received new Lutheran Worship hymnals for the entire congregation. Too, we jsut shipped new TLH hymnals and Hymnal Supplement 98 to the congregation of St. Peter, Plymouth. Each of these purchases was around $2,000 -- 40% of that is shipping! We are very pleased to be able to help our dear Lutheran brethren with the hymnals. Your Society has also helped purchase Bible study materials and solid Lutheran books. Lately, we also paid the shipping on Deaconess Pam Nielsen's "Follow the Lamb" VBS programmes. Dcs. Nielsen very graciously donated her work to the ELCE. Now the congregations of the ELCE have access to a high quality Lutheran VBS (or as it is called in the UK -- Holiday Bible School). God has richly blessed our work through you and your generous gifts. Last year, your offerings enabled us to give over $14,000 in aid to the congregations of the ELCE. Most of this was in direct aid to congregations and in Lutheran books. Some of it was for the trip I made to make an informal visit to our brethren in the UK. Another portion went to shipping all those books! For 2001, the Society has already given over $5,000 in aid to pastors and congregations, books (and shipping), and other useful Lutheran material. Thank you so much for all your help in providing such riches to your fellow Lutherans! Now some sad news. Like the LCMS, the ELCE is undergoing a crisis of identity. There are those who would introduce church growth methodologies and worship styles. There is a great temptation to adopt practices that seem to promise quick results. We all know the great strain that this has caused in our Synod. No one is immune from it. Part of the BMS's goal was to help strengthen the hand of the ELCE in this regard. Those pressures, though, do effect our work in the UK. Additionally, the leadership of the ELCE (their Executive Council - pastors and laymen elected from among the congregations) has insisted that I give them the donor records of the Society -- that is, your names and addresses. There have also been other attempts to control the Society from afar. When I started the Britain Mission Society, I thought that our efforts would be welcomed because the LCMS had stopped all monetary aid to the ELCE. Truthfully, some congregations and pastors have been lively participants with us. For the most part though, it seems like our efforts to help have not been received with enthusiasm by the leadership of the ELCE. For this reason, I notified the ELCE Chairman and Executive Council this past week that we were suspending our work on behalf of the ELCE at-large. The Elders of Our Saviour Lutheran Church concurred in this difficult decision. We hope that this will not be a permanent hiatus. Please add your prayers to ours in this matter. Don't despair though! We are still going to be engaged with smaller projects with individual congregations. Your hard-earned dollars will be put to good use. I promise you that. We still have many ideas and opportunities for helping orthodox confessional Lutheran congregations in the ELCE. Sunday school material, more Holiday Bible School materials, Bible studies, books, etc. are always in short supply. Once in a while, a congregation's property is vandalized and they need your help making repairs. We will still urge pastors to make their names available for a Call to the ELCE and will provide the list if the ELCE requests it. Our work is not finished -- not at all! For that reason, your offerings are still desired. Whether it be $25 or $2,500, it will be put to good use on items that will last for many years. Please remember the Society and your Lutheran brothers and sisters over the Atlantic. Our goal is still the same -- to help our brethren just as we were helped when our fathers came to this country. May God be merciful to us and grant that these meagre works glorify His holy name and cause His Gospel to take root in many hearts. Pray with us that His will be done in this matter. + Robert * * * The Rev. Robert Wurst Jr. mailto:loehe@sigecom.net Our Saviour Lutheran Church - LCMS 6501 E. Madison Ave. Evansville, IN 47715 812.476.8707 Home of the Britain Mission Society + + + Confessional Lutherans in Missionary Boldness + + + The CLIMB e-letter brings you unedited, uncut reports directly from the mission field, whether in South America, Africa, Europe, inner-city, rural, or collegiate America, or military installations and battle sites around the world. 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