NEWS UPDATES/ AWM/ Winter 2013-/-
--[Abiding Word Ministries/ The Vine and Branches~~]

--UPDATE ON CHURCHES LEAVING ELCA -
[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]~

**First St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hastings, NE, 2,202 baptized members, passed their first vote to leave the ELCA, October 13, 2013. There were 264 votes in favor and 117 votes opposed.

**Bethel Lutheran Church, Bemidji, MN, baptized membership 269, passed their second vote to leave the ELCA, Sunday September 8, 2013. There were 75 votes in favor and 17 votes opposed. They also voted to join the North American Lutheran Church.

**St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Logan, OH, failed to pass their vote to leave the ELCA on May 19, 2013. But they held another vote June 9 to approve holding dual affiliation with the ELCA and the North American Lutheran Church. That vote passed 99 in favor, 24 opposed. They are among a couple of dozen ELCA congregations that presently hold dual membership, a practice which has gotten several ELCA churches expelled. ~~
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-NEW LUTHERAN ARCHBISHOP OF
SWEDEN TAKES AS HER MOTTO--
"ALLAHU AKBAR" ==
-[Antje Jackelen]

~~The newly elected archbishop of the Lutheran Church in Sweden, who will preside over 6.5 million Lutherans in Sweden, has chosen as her motto the Islamic definition of God, "Allahu Akbar," "God is greater." When Archbishop Jackelen was pressed to say whether Jesus or Muhammad offered the best understanding of God, she refused to answer.

Between the new archbishop's motto and her unwillingness to make a distinction between Jesus and Muhammad, a number of clergy have said they will leave the Church of Sweden. Also alarming to many were her comments to a reporter that the virgin birth of Christ must be understood methaphorically, hell does not exist and the Biblical texts must not be taken as truth.

Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation praised Jackelen's election as archbishop of the largest church body in their membership, calling her election an affirmation of diversity. Between the ELCA and the Church of Sweden, the Lutheran World Federation is now one of the supreme influences promoting heresy and apostasy throughout the world. Hopefully, more conservative Lutheran bodies will reconsider their membership in the LWF.~~
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--"A truly moral nation enacts policies that encourage personal responsibility and discourage self-destructive behavior by not subsidizing people who live irresponsibly and make poor choices."
--Dr. Ben Carson ~~
-Abiding Word Ministries
-Pastor David Barnhart