To Support and Encourage Recognition of Altar and Pulpit Fellowship with Lutheran Mission—Australia

Official Workbook overture source text

5-02 
To Support and Encourage Recognition  
of Altar and Pulpit Fellowship  
with Lutheran Mission— Australia 
Preamble 
By its own acknowledgement, the Lutheran Church of Australia and 
New Zealand (LCANZ; hereafter LCA) has struggled with deep 
theological divisions for decades. One of the most public areas of 
disagreement has been the question of what the Scriptures teach 
regarding the ordination of women to the pastoral office. In a 
document published in July 2024 the LCA stated: “Despite more 
than three decades of theological study and debate within the 
Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand (LCANZ), we 
remain divide d on whether or not the Scriptures permit the 
ordination of women” (Lutheran Church of Australia, Way Forward 
Detailed Framework, 2024, 3). 
As this statement illustrates, the longstanding division in the LCA 
over women’s ordination has been rooted in fundamentally 
differing understandings of the authority and interpretation of 
Scripture itself. Lutheran Mission -Australia (LM — A) President 
Matthew Anker has stated: “The key issue that led to the 
establishment of LM — A was the undermining of the authority of 
the Word of God in the LCA’s theology and life together. Even 
before women’s ordination was introduced, we no longer shared the 
same confession and needed to be unyoked from heterodoxy, which 
constantly demands sacrifice through compromise.” In addition to 
the question of the ordination of women, other troubling theological 
developments evident in the LCA (as articulated by LM —A 
leaders) include the ambiguous commitment of many LCA leaders 
and pastors to the Lutheran Confessions, Gospel reductionism, 
antinomianism, the unscriptural theology of many of those teaching 
church workers, the devolving theological agenda and trajectory of 
the LCA college and seminary, a lack of faithful adherence to clear 
and orthodox LCA public statements such as its own constitution 
and the LCA’s Theses of Agreement (including the Theses of 
Agreement’s teaching on church fellowship), lack of church 
discipline, etc. 
For many years, pastors and laity in the LCA fully committed to the 
authority of Scripture and to the truth of the Lutheran Confessions 
remained in the LCA, hopeful of a return to its foundational 
confession and commitments. Those hopes were severely 
undermined at the LCA’s 2021 convention, when then-Bishop John 
Henderson publicly stated: “We are not going to solve this issue 
[women’s ordination] with further truth claims, even about 
Scripture.” (“Agenda 3.1”, 
lca.app.box.com/s/disizprdt6mrps427dqw5yfyrkte1twv, accessed 
March 19, 2026) Soon thereafter, in early 2022, several LCA