My friend, Pastor Tapani Simojoki, was reading some comments on another Lutheran forum about the story on the Finnish situation, and offered this by way of response, which I posted there, but which you may find useful as well. There is a Finnish seminary student on the other forum trying to make assertions about the nature of the office of bishop in Finland, which is in error, and thus, Pr. Simojoki begins these comments by correcting this misinformation. The British spellings are a result of Pr. Simojoki being in Britain, serving as a pastor there in our sister church.

What Heikki Repo, aka nordicfox, claims about the episcopacy in Finland is simply not correct. Ontologically, a bishop is a pastor. Bishops are consecrated, not ordained. They remain bishops for a lifetime, but so do presidents and professors in Finland. You don’t cease to be a citizen when you become a president, even though you will never relinquish the title (though you will relinquish the office). Also, despite the Porvoo Agreement, the ‘apostolic succession’ (sic!) is not a sine qua non theologically, although in practice it is guaranteed for the sake of the Anglicans. Some Finnish theologians are keen on it, others don’t care; but it’s not written into the church’s constitution.

As for Luther Foundation, it’s just another independent parachurch organisation, a bit like the Lutheran Heritage Foundation or Higher Things in the LC-MS. In fact, the Dean, Pastor Juhana Pohjola, holds a valid call from the Oulu Diocese for his job, just like Jim Fandrey or Wallace Schulz hold valid calls to the LHF. No difference at all. And, therefore, the relationship between Luther Foundation and ELCF is not ambiguous at all. Nor is Luther Foundation by any means the only official parachurch organisation which has its own non-parochial congregations.

As for Matti Väisänen’s episcopacy, it looks bad if one takes Dave Benke’s line. However, since his episcopacy is not recognised officially by ELCF or its Tampere Diocese, there is strictly speaking no conflict. If I decided to call myself Archbishop of Canterbury and started wearing the paraphernalia, or my wife called herself the Queen and I renamed our house Buckingham Palace, that wouldn’t have any practical effect on anyone at all. It may in bad taste, but all it is is impersonating the real person. So from the point of view of the rule book, Väisänen is at worst guilty of impersonating a bishop – and whether that’s a sackable offence is debatable.

Finally, Heikki’s point about the treatment of notorious heretics does not hold water. There have been very public cases of pastors blessings same-sex unions (including a relative of mine), as well as a lesbian pastor coming out on national TV, not to mention books published. In cases where anything has been done at all (and often nothing has been done, despite official requests for heresy charges to be brought), no action has been taken. For example, the bishop of Helsinki has in several cases (including a case of a book proclaiming universalism, a blessing of a same-sex couple and the afore-mentioned lesbian pastor) simply invited the pastors in question for a private chat and then told the media that he was satisfied with their orthodoxy — without any retractions or undertakings regarding future conduct being given. By contrast, when the issue has been opposition to the ordination of women, for example, the cases have been handled very publicly, with very little pastoral contact, with maximum penalties being wielded.

Finally, the claim earlier on that the ordination of women is not about the Gospel is another way of saying that the office of the ministry and its divine institutions are not about the Gospel. Not very CA 5, I say. Even if one granted that the matter were unresolved, from the point of view of Väisänen et al., it is about the Gospel. It’s not a symmetrical dispute.

If you think any of this is worth putting up on the forum, please do.

In Christ,
Tapani

P.S. It might be worth also dispelling the notion that Luther Foundation is negative and destructive. 99% of their time is spent in ordinary church work: teaching, preaching, administering the sacraments, pastoral care & counseling, as well as extensive publishing (incl. the first-ever Finnish translation of Luther’s Genesis commentary). This negative stuff makes it to the press, but go to their services and you will hear Law and Gospel. In fact, the Foundation is blessed with some of the finest young preachers in the country.