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| Gutsche's page has disappeared from Facebook, but LinkedIn has him listed as serving a WELS church in the past, an ELCA congregation in San Francisco - where he was fired after being arrested in Needles. He is in the Canadian version of ELCA now and lives in his mother's basement. |
Church of the Lutheran Confession Micahel Eichstadt - September 2012 President's Letter
Notes: Free Conference: The German Free Conference was held last weekend. Dave Reim, Dave Koenig, and Bd. of Missions member Joel Krag represented the CLC. A report will be provided to the Coordinating Council.
August, Ja?
Here are the court documents and details.
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LinkedIn Information Posted by Gutsche, with added information and links
St. Matthew Lutheran Church
San Francisco, California USA
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| St. Matthew Bio of Horst W. Gutsche |
October 2007. Pastor Gutsche was born in Hoiersdorf, Germany and moved with his family to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1956. He attended Northwestern College in Watertown, WI and the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, SK . He then attended seminaries in Oberursel, Germany and Saskatoon, SK and did post graduate work at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN. He has done volunteer work among the newly resurrected Lutheran Churches in the countries of the former Soviet Union. After his ordination in 1975 he served several bilingual congregations in western Canada as well as Zion Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, NY before coming to St. Matthew’s.Horst W. Gutsche was across the pond at the same time -
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Progress in doctrinal discussions
On August 21 representatives of the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC), the Evangelical Lutheran Synod(ELS), and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) met in Mankato, Minnesota for their third round of doctrinal discussions. It is a joy to report that the nine participants agreed to a revision of the 1990 document entitled “Joint Statement Regarding the Termination of Fellowship.” This document will now be sent to the CLC Board of Doctrine, the ELS Doctrine Committee, and the WELS Commission on Inter-Church Relations for their consideration.
Agreement on this document does not imply full agreement on all the controverted matters. There still are a number of significant issues to discuss, and another meeting has been scheduled for November 13.
But this agreement is a good first step in overcoming the differences between our synods.
Office of the President 12145 W. Edgerton Ave. Hales Corners, WI 53130 414-427-9337 meichsta@gmail.com
Presumably the “Joint Statement” will be made public in the future, but at this point the appropriate committees from each synod are reviewing the document without public distribution. Prayers are welcomed that God will continue to guide this process for good.
The three synod presidents agreed to the above release. I have heard concerns that it is
premature, too optimistic, and gives the impression that fellowship is imminent. Please don’t
read more into the statement than what is there. There are two main points to remember.
First, after many hours of frank and careful discussion, the three committees did come to
agreement on a “joint statement” regarding the termination of fellowship from heterodox
bodies. As the statement indicates, it is certainly reason for joy when the Spirit works genuine
agreement on the truths of the Word.
The second point, however, which needs to be kept in mind is that the joint statement is a
very preliminary step. It has not been reviewed by our Bored of Lutheran Doctrine or the other
corresponding doctrine committees of the WELS and ELS. Also, there are other “significant
issues,” such as membership in Thrivent and similar organizations, like the Girl Scouts, Brownies, American Legion, and PTA, which need to be discussed and resolved before there can be any consideration of fellowship.
Naturally, these meetings hold great interest not only for us as pastors, but for all of us in the
CLC. In our own minds and in talking with our members, it is important not to jump to
conclusions one way or the other. Restored fellowship is not by any means a foregone
conclusion nor is a doctrinal impasse inevitable at this point. What we can be sure of is that
when the Word is studied as God’s truth and used as the basis for discussion, the Spirit will
bestow His blessings in the way of His choosing. “My word...will not return to me empty, but
will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). That, I
believe, is reason for optimism regardless of the final outcome.
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| The CLC's Gutsche and WELS' own Joel Hochmuth could have had their own cell group - as long as they didn't prey together. |