{ "book_metadata": { "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials", "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose", "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge", "published_on": "2011" }, "chunks": [ { "chunk_index": 1, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 398 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00422-1867eef1481fa4cb1f7b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Consultation Background", "chunk_data": "190. C.S.I./LUTHERAN CONSULTATION: AGREED STATEMENTS (1959 A.D.)\nFollowing the formation of the Church of South India in 1947, representatives of that Church entered into conversations with other Churches in South India with the purpose of exploring means of enlarging the unity of the Churches. Among the more significant and fruitful of these conversations were those with the Lutheran Churches. They led ultimately to the proposal to unite the C.S.I. and the Lutheran Churches in South India in the proposed Church of Christ in South India. The agreed statements reached in 1959 were an important landmark in this movement. The CSI-Lutheran Theological Conversations 1948-1959, selections from pp. 165-180.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "South India" ], "event": "The Church of South India and Lutheran Churches conducted theological conversations that led to agreed statements and a proposal for church union.", "tags": [ "Church Unity", "Christianity", "South India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 398 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00422-1867eef1481fa4cb1f7b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Doctrinal Statements Introduced", "chunk_data": "1. The Relation of Doctrinal and Confessional Statements to the Being of the Church.\nThis statement was prepared at a conference of representatives of the C.S.I., Lutheran and Baptist Churches in South India. It has since been officially accepted by the Synod of the Church of South India, and by the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "South India", "India" ], "event": "Representatives of the C.S.I., Lutheran, and Baptist Churches prepared a statement later accepted by the C.S.I. Synod and the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India.", "tags": [ "Doctrine", "Church Unity", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 398 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00422-1867eef1481fa4cb1f7b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "God Revealed in Christ", "chunk_data": "(1) God has revealed Himself to us, and the centre of that revelation is His saving act in Jesus Christ. This revelation of Himself is the reality which the Church seeks to express in words in its creeds and confessions of faith.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement identifies God's saving act in Jesus Christ as the centre of divine revelation expressed by the Church.", "tags": [ "Doctrine", "Jesus Christ", "Revelation" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 398 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00422-1867eef1481fa4cb1f7b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Faith as Loving Trust", "chunk_data": "(2) The faith by which this revelation is apprehended is a far deeper thing than intellectual assent to propositions. It is the self-surrender in love and trust of the whole personality to the loving God, who offers forgiveness, the status of sons, to men who do not deserve and can never deserve such mercy and such love. It is man's answer to the God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were' (Rom. 4:17).", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement defines faith as the loving and trusting self-surrender of the whole person to God rather than mere intellectual agreement.", "tags": [ "Faith", "Doctrine", "Religion" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 398 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00422-1867eef1481fa4cb1f7b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Faith and Intellectual Belief", "chunk_data": "(3) Yet faith necessarily involves an intellectual element. It must include belief in certain truths about God and the belief that certain events happened and that they have a certain meaning.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement affirms that Christian faith includes belief in truths about God and in the meaning of historical events.", "tags": [ "Faith", "Doctrine", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 399 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00423-1aa84b9c41a45e8e63ea.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Language and Revelation", "chunk_data": "(4) As the Church seeks to confess what it believes and to safeguard it from misunderstanding or distortion, it must use human language, but must always remember that human language is necessarily inadequate to express the fullness of God's revelation.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement acknowledges the necessity of human language while recognizing its inadequacy to express the fullness of divine revelation.", "tags": [ "Doctrine", "Revelation", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 399 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00423-1aa84b9c41a45e8e63ea.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Role of Creeds", "chunk_data": "(5) The use of creeds and confessions to guide Christians into deeper experience and to preserve the essentials of the Christian message, is, in principle, sound and scriptural.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [], "event": "The statement approves the use of creeds and confessions to guide Christian experience and preserve the essential Christian message.", "tags": [ "Creeds", "Doctrine", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 399 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00423-1aa84b9c41a45e8e63ea.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Creeds Under Scripture", "chunk_data": "(6) All creeds and confessions are subordinate standards subject to the authority of the word of God.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement places all creeds and confessions under the authority of the Word of God.", "tags": [ "Creeds", "Scripture", "Doctrine" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 399 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00423-1aa84b9c41a45e8e63ea.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Scripture and Christ", "chunk_data": "(7) The Word of God is primarily and essentially the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. It is in the Holy Scriptures that God speaks this Word to us, for they are the inspired record of and testimony to His revelation of Himself. They are therefore the supreme and decisive standard of faith. But, in seeking to understand them we must remember that Christ, the central subject and at the same time the Lord and the Master of the Holy Scripture, is the ultimate touchstone of every biblical book and word. We must also remember that there is no authority either of Scripture or of creed which can convince the natural man of Christian truth apart from his spiritual conversion, or which can preserve the Christian man or church infallibly from error. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to hear and believe the Word of God in the Scriptures.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement identifies Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word and the ultimate standard for understanding Scripture, with the Holy Spirit enabling belief.", "tags": [ "Scripture", "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 399 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00423-1aa84b9c41a45e8e63ea.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Spirit and Fellowship", "chunk_data": "(8) The Holy Spirit, who speaks in the Scriptures, and who brings home God's Word to our hearts, unites us thereby in one fellowship of the faithful which is the Church. It is in that fellowship that the Scriptures are to be read and understood. While every man is finally responsible for his own discerning of and obedience to the truth, no Christian can disown his fellowship with other Christians or ignore the testimony of the Church as to what the Holy Spirit says in the Scriptures. In particular the ancient creeds of the Church, setting forth the Christian message as believed and confessed by the Church in many lands and in many centuries, and as we believe and confess it, must carry immense weight, not as being themselves the revelation which is the object of faith, but as witnessing to it and as guarding against misunderstanding of it.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Holy Spirit" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement teaches that the Holy Spirit unites believers in the Church and that ancient creeds witness to revelation without being revelation themselves.", "tags": [ "Holy Spirit", "Church", "Creeds" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 399, 400 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00423-1aa84b9c41a45e8e63ea.webp", "raw\\pages\\00424-6a0ac67dc787fec1a455.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Christian Essentials and Faith", "chunk_data": "(9) The Church is bound to require belief in certain Christian essentials from its members and-in more detail from its ministers and authorised teachers. But in fulfilling this duty in each individual case it must never allow its practice to obscure the truth that intellectual belief is only one element, and that at not the most important, in what is needed. It must always seek to be sure that the person in question has faith in Christ. The capacity of the Church to make right decisions, and to apply its standards wisely in each case, will depend upon the measure of its faithfulness to its Lord and of its responsiveness to the Holy Spirit in its daily life.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement requires Christian essentials while insisting that genuine faith in Christ is more important than intellectual belief alone.", "tags": [ "Faith", "Church", "Doctrine" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 400 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00424-6a0ac67dc787fec1a455.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Unity and Basic Doctrine", "chunk_data": "(10) Agreement regarding the basic doctrines which are of the essence of the Gospel is the pre-requisite of union between Churches. Nevertheless the basis for the unity of the Church is oneness in the Lord Himself.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement identifies agreement on essential Gospel doctrines as necessary for church union while grounding unity in oneness in Christ.", "tags": [ "Church Unity", "Doctrine", "Gospel" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 400 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00424-6a0ac67dc787fec1a455.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Church and Ministry", "chunk_data": "5. The Church and the Ministry.\n(1) The nature of the Church and of the Ministry within the Church can only be understood rightly within the context of God's revelation of Himself, His eternal saving purpose, His saving act in Jesus Christ His Son, and the continuing saving work of the Risen and Ascended Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Church exists by the grace of God and those who belong to it are members of the Church by the grace of God.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement defines the Church and its ministry in relation to God's saving purpose, Christ's work, and the Holy Spirit.", "tags": [ "Church", "Ministry", "Doctrine" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 400 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00424-6a0ac67dc787fec1a455.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Church Fellowship and Baptism", "chunk_data": "(2) The Church exists and men are called into the fellowship of the Church in order that through it God may carry out His eternal purpose in Christ (Eph. 3:9-11). It is a fellowship of men with God and with one another, in Christ. It is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. As its heart is this fellowship with God, it is at its deepest a reality in the Spirit. We believe that it is God's will that men became members of the Church through faith in the Gospel and baptism into Christ (Eph. 2:8-10; John 3:5; Matt. 28:19-20). To be outside the Church by unbelief or to be cut off from the Church's fellowship because of unrepented sin is a serious matter. Yet, in the present state of disunity no body of Christians can rightly claim to be in an exclusive sense the Church or look upon its judgements as necessarily inspired by the Spirit.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement describes the Church as fellowship with God and other believers, entered through faith in the Gospel and baptism into Christ.", "tags": [ "Church", "Baptism", "Faith" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 400 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00424-6a0ac67dc787fec1a455.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Church Manifesting Christ", "chunk_data": "(3) It is God's purpose that the Church should be the place where He and His saving work in Christ are manifest. It is His will that the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church be seen in actual communities of human beings baptised into Christ, to which He can make known His will and through which He can fulfil it (John 17:21). Because of the continuing fact of human sin, even in the redeemed, the Church is not in any of its manifestations wholly obedient to the will of God. But the Church of God in every place is called continually to turn to God, so that through its life Christ may be set forth.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement presents the Church as the community through which God's saving work in Christ is manifested despite human sin.", "tags": [ "Church", "Jesus Christ", "Doctrine" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 400, 401 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00424-6a0ac67dc787fec1a455.webp", "raw\\pages\\00425-af2125e7b611019d97d6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Visible and Universal Church", "chunk_data": "(4) We not only speak of the Church in the sense of the totality of all Christ's people, throughout all ages and all lands, who are one in Him; and of the Church as the local fellowship of believers who gather in one place. We use the word 'Church' of the Christians in a region and of those Christians who belong to a particular denomination. Where such usage carries with it the implication that other Christians are not members of the Church Universal, it is not in accordance with the New Testament. We do well to recognise that the fundamental unity is God's gift in Christ and does in a real sense appear even where, owing to history, race or tradition, there are such wide divergencies in belief and practice among those calling themselves Christians that we cannot yet see any way towards visible unity consistent with loyalty to Christ and His truth...", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement distinguishes the universal, local, regional, and denominational Church while affirming fundamental unity as God's gift in Christ.", "tags": [ "Church Unity", "Church", "Ecumenism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 401 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00425-af2125e7b611019d97d6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Every Christian Has a Ministry", "chunk_data": "(5) The Church is Apostolic in its essential nature, in the sense that it shares in the Mission of the Son by the Father and is empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 20: 21-23). For the accomplishment of this total ministry to the world there is given by the Holy Spirit to every member of the Church some form of ministering (I Cor. 12). Every Christian man and woman has a charisma, a spiritual gift. It is an error to think that some members of the Church are called to be active and the others to be passive. Every member is meant both to give and to receive...", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement teaches that every Christian receives a spiritual gift and shares actively in the Church's apostolic mission.", "tags": [ "Ministry", "Holy Spirit", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 18, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 401 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00425-af2125e7b611019d97d6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Pastoral Ministry Established", "chunk_data": "(6) In order that through His Church Christ may be made manifest to the world which He died to save, the quality of the relationship between every member of the Church and God through Christ and of every member of the Church one with another in Christ, is vital. Therefore Christ has given to His Church a ministry, in the special sense of persons set apart to perform certain functions within the fellowship, which are needed so that the Church may worship God in thankful remembrance of His saving act in Christ and may witness for Him to the world (Eph. 4:11-12). This pastoral office was given to the Apostles at the first. There is a 'watching over' the sheep and a 'serving' of the sheep, Episcope' and Diakonia'. Both are found in Christ and both He entrusts to men (I Peter 5: 1-4).", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ", "Apostles" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement explains that Christ entrusted the Church with a pastoral ministry of oversight and service, first given to the Apostles.", "tags": [ "Ministry", "Apostles", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 19, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 401 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00425-af2125e7b611019d97d6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Ministry and Church Unity", "chunk_data": "We believe that the continuance of such a ministry is necessary to the full well-being and activity of the Church everywhere and in all ages. We believe that by Christ's will it rests upon the Church to determine, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, how from time to time these functions of watching and serving shall be carried out. We see no reason to believe that any one pattern of the Christian ministry has an exclusive claim to divine ordering and approval at all times and under all conditions. If we discern God at work within any body of Christians through a ministry of the Word and Sacraments, we are bound to take this fact into account in any discussion about Christian unity.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit", "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement affirms the continuing necessity of ministry while rejecting exclusive claims for one ministerial pattern in discussions of Christian unity.", "tags": [ "Ministry", "Church Unity", "Sacraments" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 20, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 401, 402 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00425-af2125e7b611019d97d6.webp", "raw\\pages\\00426-beb6ea91d67ef8e3afb4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Authority of the Ministry", "chunk_data": "(7) This ministry is within the Church and is not to be thought of as possessing any independent relation to Christ or any authority which is not given by Christ in the Church and for the life and work of the Church. It is not the creation of the Church and it is given to the Church not to please the Church but to do the will of Christ its Lord. It is the duty of the Church to be alert to recognize that God has called this or that man to this special ministry, in whatever form, and to set him apart by prayer and, according to ancient custom, laying on of hands to the office. At the heart of the work of the ministry must always be the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, for it is in and through them that Christ constitutes and keeps alive His Church.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement places ministry within the Church under Christ's authority and identifies Gospel preaching and sacramental administration as its central work.", "tags": [ "Ministry", "Gospel", "Sacraments" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 21, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 402 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00426-beb6ea91d67ef8e3afb4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Continuity Amid Disunity", "chunk_data": "(8) The essential continuity of the Church is in the continued presence and activity of the Lord with the faithful. But, because the Church's obedience is imperfect the Church has not continued perfectly in love'. The fellowship has been broken. Because of disunity among Christians, changes in the form, manner of ordination and functions of the ministry have been made without the approval of the whole Church on earth at the time. It appeared to those responsible then and appears to many today, that such action was inevitable unless they were to be false to the Gospel.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement attributes the Church's continuity to the Lord's presence while acknowledging broken fellowship and changes in ministry caused by Christian disunity.", "tags": [ "Church Unity", "Ministry", "Church History" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 22, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 402 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00426-beb6ea91d67ef8e3afb4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Order and Restoration", "chunk_data": "Yet, although we may agree that such changes may at times rightly be made, we must insist that they can only be justified if done prayerfully and with the widest possible approval of Christians, subject always to the absolute duty of loyalty to Christ and the Gospel. God is a God of order and we may not lightly change what we have inherited. Yet order itself may be made into an idolatry that turns men away from the living God. All remain under the obligation to seek God's way for the restoration of unity in the Spirit.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement permits changes in ministry when made prayerfully and loyally to Christ, while calling Christians to seek restoration of unity in the Spirit.", "tags": [ "Church Unity", "Ministry", "Doctrine" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 23, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 402 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00426-beb6ea91d67ef8e3afb4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Validity and Ministerial Forms", "chunk_data": "(9) Every Church makes rules for the election and setting apart of men for the ministry and keeps a list of those whom it accepts as ministers within its fellowship. In the sense of obedience to its rules, validity is an essential concept of any society. The error comes when we identify the rules of our Church with the absolute will of God, and deny, implicitly or explicitly, that God accepts and uses some other form of the ministry equally with the form to which we are accustomed. It is not for us to determine how and where God can work.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement distinguishes church rules from God's absolute will and rejects denying the validity of other forms of ministry.", "tags": [ "Ministry", "Church", "Ecumenism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 24, "chapter_name": "1959. C.S.I. Lutheran Consultation: Agreed Statements", "page_numbers": [ 402 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00426-beb6ea91d67ef8e3afb4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Episcopacy and Church Relations", "chunk_data": "(10) It is true that the exercise of oversight (Episcope) was early entrusted by the Church to one bishop in each area. This ordering was for many centuries universal and is still the accepted form among the majority of Christians. We do not hold that it is essential for the existence of the Church, or for the ministry and the Sacraments; or that God has bound Himself to grant through it greater blessing, authority or grace than through other forms of the Church's ministry. It has been and can be grievously misused, as can every gift of God. But we see value in it as expressing through a person the oversight which is a vital part of the pastoral ministry within the Church. However, the presence or absence of episcopacy, ought not by itself to determine the relationship of one Church with another.", "time": { "start_year": 1959, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1959, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1959 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "God" ], "places": [], "event": "The statement recognizes the historical role of episcopal oversight but denies that episcopacy alone should determine relations between Churches.", "tags": [ "Episcopacy", "Ministry", "Church Unity" ] } } ] }