COP supports statement on CTX from Harrison, BOD

During the April 2023 meeting of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Council of Presidents (COP) — a meeting that is typically focused on the seminaries, particularly the placement of seminary graduates and vicarage assignments during Call Day services on both seminary campuses — the COP paused to offer public commendation of the Synod’s recent efforts concerning Concordia University Texas (CTX), Austin, Texas.

After significant discussion about the CTX Board of Regents’ (BOR) asserted self-separation of the university from the governance of the Synod, the COP passed a motion that “commends President Harrison, [LCMS] D[istrict] P[resident Rev. Michael] Newman, and the [LCMS] Board of Directors [BOD] in the work that they are already doing with the Concordia Texas Board of Regents.” The motion added the COP’s desire “to support the statement that President Harrison and the Board of Directors has already made on April 18, 2023.”

The April 18 statement from the BOD and Harrison concludes, “As steward of the Synod’s property and business affairs, the Synod BOD is responsible to address CTX’s asserted self-separation in a way that best honors the Synod’s Constitution and Bylaws and serves the interest of the Synod’s member congregations. As chief ecclesiastical supervisor of the Synod and its institutions, the LCMS President is also addressing the matter of theological and philosophical concerns faithfully and forcefully. …

“We pray that our risen Lord will also in this matter bring good from ill, both for the Synod and for CTX. We invite everyone to join us in continued prayers for our Synod; our Synod President; the BOD; the CUS [Concordia University System]; the CTX BOR; and CTX’s leaders, administrators, faculty, and students.”

Read the full statement.

Posted April 25, 2023