Version History
Current published version
Today's Business, Issue 1. pp. 98-99. Original floor committee resolution.
No later published versions have been added.
Official Resolution Source Text
Resolution: 5-03
Canonical number: 5-03
Committee: Theology and Church Relations
Source: Today's Business, Issue 1
Printed pages: pp. 98-99
PDF pages: 98-99
Version: original, current-published-proposal
Source reference: Issue 1, pp. 98-99
Line numbers follow Today's Business, Issue 1, with numbering reset on each printed page, so delegates can compare this page with the official PDF.
Page 98
- To Give Thanks for the Mission Province in Sweden
- RESOLUTION 5-03
- Report R1.1, R12 (CW, 7, 62)
- Preamble
- The Mission Province in Sweden (MPS) was formed in 2003 to support confessional Lutheran pastors and congregations
- and to restore the possibility of ordination for future pastors who either could not be ordained or would not be properly
- supervised in the increasingly liberalized and radicalized Nordic national churches. In 2006, the Mission Province was
Page 99
- expanded and renamed the Mission Province in Sweden and Finland (MPSF). In May 2009, The Lutheran Church—
- Missouri Synod (LCMS) Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) and the Director of Church Relations—
- Assistant to the President met in St. Louis with representatives of the Mission Province, including Dr. Bengt Birgersson
- (general secretary of the MPSF at the time), for the purpose of encouraging the cause of biblical, confessional Lutheranism
- in the Nordic world.
- In subsequent years, informal discussions took place on various occasions between LCMS and MPSF leaders in the U.S.
- and in Sweden. In 2012, Bishop Roland Gustafsson represented the MPSF at the International Conference on Confessional
- Leadership hosted by the LCMS in Atlanta, where he delivered a paper on the efforts of confessional Lutherans in Sweden
- and Finland.
- In 2013, the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (ELMDF) was formed as an independent church body.
- Formal discussions regarding church fellowship between the ELMDF and the LCMS began in 2017, and (following a
- recommendation by the CTCR) President Harrison declared recognition of fellowship between the LCMS and the ELMDF
- in October 2020. The LCMS endorsed recognition of fellowship at its 2023 convention (Res. 5-02, “To Recognize Altar
- and Pulpit Fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland”).
- Following the formation of the ELMDF, the MPS once again concentrated its activities on Sweden, while also cooperating
- closely with the ELMDF and the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway (DELSiN, formed in 2013). In 2018, the MPS
- became a member of the International Lutheran Council (ILC). In recent years, the MPS has continued to engage the
- LCMS in formal and informal conversations, in the hopes of ultimately declaring altar and pulpit fellowship with one
- another.
- WHEREAS, The MPS is a confessional Lutheran church consisting of 20 congregations in Sweden served by 45 pastors;
- and
- WHEREAS, The MPS was formed to bear witness to the truth of the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions and
- to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in an increasingly liberalized and radicalized cultural and ecclesial context in the
- Nordic region; and
- WHEREAS, Many MPS confessors of the faith were either defrocked or refused ordination because of their faithful
- witness to Christ and His Word; and
- WHEREAS, The MPS bears witness to the Gospel of Christ in a country where only about 2 percent of the population
- attends church on a weekly basis; and
- WHEREAS, The MPS remains in ongoing theological discussion with representatives of the LCMS; therefore be it
- Resolved, That we give thanks to God for the faithful and courageous Lutheran witness given by the MPS within its
- own country, to the entire Nordic world, and beyond; and be it further
- Resolved, That we encourage and support MPS in appropriate ways as it proclaims the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ
- to a lost and dying world; and be it finally
- Resolved, That Synod in convention urge the President of Synod, his church relations staff, and the CTCR to continue
- conversations with the MPS in the 2026–2029 Triennium in the hopes of mutual recognition of altar and pulpit fellowship.
