Walk by faith: Winchester Lutherans first in country to meet since break from ELCA

By James Heffernan -- jheffernan@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- As a retired physician, educator and administrator, Dr. Roy Schwarz owes his professional career to the teachings of science. But as a man of strong Christian faith, he looks to the Bible to guide him in his everyday life.

So when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America began to drift from what he and others within the church consider to be the fundamental teachings of Scripture, Schwarz was quick to recognize the symptoms.

At the center of the church's growing schism is the ELCA's increasingly liberal views on homosexuality, which became the basis for a report drafted by the national assembly early last year. For Schwarz and other like-minded conservative Lutherans, the final straw came in August, when the ELCA voted to allow practicing homosexuals in lifelong monogamous relationships to serve as clergy and lay leaders.

"In medicine, we have a disease process that has symptoms," Schwarz says. "To us, the sexuality report is symptomatic of where the ELCA has strayed."

In November, Schwarz, his wife and about 50 other Winchester-area Lutherans, many of them members of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in the city, met to discuss the ELCA's decision and to consider breaking off on their own.

"Most of us realized at that time that we could not stay," Schwarz says.

The group found strength in Lutheran CORE, a national coalition of pastors and congregations formed in response to ELCA's new direction. One of CORE's functions is to help people concerned about the recent changes in church doctrine form free-standing synods, or dioceses, to carry out ministries separate from the ELCA.

"It was very clear [from the CORE meeting last summer] that many Lutherans wanted to start a new national church," Schwarz says, "and CORE took it upon themselves to do just that."

The result was the North American Lutheran Church, which stands to be formally recognized at CORE's August meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Schwarz's son, Ryan, who lives in Washington, serves as its vice chairman.

St. John's Lutheran Church in Roanoke, the state's largest Lutheran congregation, became the first in Virginia to break away from the ELCA. But others, including Morning Star Lutheran Church in Mt. Jackson, soon followed.

"There are a number of people who have either broken off or are in the process of doing so," Schwarz says.

The Winchester group has since formed Advent Lutheran Church. The group, which meets Sunday mornings at Seventh Day Adventist Church on Valley Avenue, became the first North American Lutheran Church congregation in the country to hold services last weekend.

The controversy over same-sex partnerships isn't unique to the Lutheran faith, Schwarz says. Other Protestant groups, including Episcopalians and Presbyterians, have been grappling with the issue for years.

"I think we're in the early stages of a second reformation in North America," Schwarz says, a reference to Martin Luther's movement to reform the Christian church beginning in 1517.

The dissidents are often labeled homophobes, but Schwarz points to nine verses in the Bible that deal with homosexuality, all of which, he says, lead to the same conclusion -- that it's the act, rather than the thought, that makes it a sin.

They also believe in the biblical view of marriage as between one man and one woman.

Schwarz stresses that his and other groups did not split with the ELCA over sex. "We split over the drift away from scriptural guidance. Homosexuality was just the final straw."

As president of Advent Lutheran Church, Schwarz says his group's goal is to provide an alternative for Lutherans and others Christians in the Northern Shenandoah Valley who can't accept the drift away from biblical teachings.

"We're finding common ground among Episcopalians, Presbyterians and others," he says. "Our motto is we are a mission church filled with missionaries."

Of course, the church also wants to grow its membership and move into its own building at some point, Schwarz says. Meanwhile, the congregation wants to be heavily involved in mission work and Christian education, he says.

"It's fun and exciting ... and liberating at the same time. The enthusiasm is extraordinary."