Post: Readers Respond

Thank you for wisely deciding to publish Karen Tamte’s “A traumatic uprooting”. The good doctor’s diagnosis lays bare the splits, from within the Covenant communion, and the schisms, from without, of important LGBTQ challenges (especially church blessing of same sex marriage) to more traditional notions and practices of sex and gender, without rancor or acrimony, but with care and good will (surely two key notes of agape). However licensed it might be, this early venture into turbulent waters is a model of mature, nuanced, insightful social theology and, dare I say it, ecclesiology. A moving demonstration of inclusivity — of view of being and being of view — in the most emphatic sense (we are not angrily decided at or for, but exhorted and authorized to decide for ourselves, after Spirit-led encounter with the issues themselves). I would think the next step on the way, for Pietisten and the rest of us, really the whole Christian church, would be to chart and map the Biblical warrant and call for such welcome and welcoming parrhesia. The living word is the Living Word, after all.
Stephen Gilbert Streed, Hopkins, Minnesota

I read Karen Tamte’s article “A Traumatic Uprooting” with a deep sense of sorrow and loss. For 40 years I loved who we were as a Covenant, and what we aspired to be. I was naive enough to think the Covenant could show another way, a better, holier way to live with difference with a shared love for Jesus. I was wrong — disastrously so. It wasn’t just about the tragedy of churches thrown out. It was about the pastors: Dan Collison and Steve Armfield publicly humiliated and expelled in 2019 and many others quietly forced out or leaving on their own accord…. Dan was sandbagged during the [Ministerium] meeting by charges from former colleagues, charges that had nothing to do with the initial charges made against him. Charges that should have been declared out of order — but it was too late since they had been aired in public before the Ministerium business meeting was even called to order… After that I knew that I could no longer trust the Ministerium, a group I had always been proud to be a part of. I would shortly in great sorrow resign my credentials. I am now part of the Episcopal Church, but in my chest beats the heart of a Pietist — and always will.
Jay Phelan, Bloomington, Minnesota
Emeritus President and Dean, North Park Theological Seminary