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Chilstrom by the book


Formation of a leader, a church By Sandra Guy


W


hether the importance of his- tory comes from literary giant Oscar Wilde (“Any fool can


make history, but it takes a genius to write it”) or baseball player Yogi Berra (“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there”) its instructiveness helps us look behind and ahead.


So it is with the just-released autobiography of Herbert W. Chil- strom, the first presiding bishop of the ELCA. A Journey of Grace: The Formation of a Leader and a Church describes how Chilstrom grappled with issues ranging from his career as a pastor, as bishop of the Minnesota Synod of the former Lutheran Church in America and as ELCA presiding bishop, to the church’s dealings with gay pastors, budget-cutting and ecu- menical relationships.


He also shares accounts of his fam- ily life, including the role of his wife, Corinne, also a pastor; the tragedy of their son Andrew’s death; and the impact of his developmentally chal- lenged brother, David.


Throughout the 648-page book is a clear recognition of Chilstrom’s open- mindedness, mature judgments and


Guy is an ELCA member and reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times.


willingness to change his views. Chilstrom, who turns 80 this month, enjoyed the good times of being the ELCA’s presiding bishop, too, conceiving programs, working with wonderful staff members to bring ideas to reality, and sharing the good news for two terms as bishop, through 1995.


The 1987 merger of the American Lutheran Church, the LCA and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches occurred with great hopes, wrenching compromises and a disap- pointment that for many has evolved into a resolution to do God’s work with a smaller membership and bud- get than originally envisioned. In his book, Chilstrom explains how he came to write a pastoral letter during a 1988 controversy involv- ing three gay seminarians at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., based on his own journey: He had never met a homo- sexual person who chose his or her orientation; he was dubious about claims for “a cure”; and he deter- mined that homosexual people are no more inclined to abuse others than are heterosexuals.


He describes the pain of oversee- ing a policy that rejected the would-be pastors “when I knew in my heart of hearts that I longed to see the day when these three young men could


have their rights to be ordained honored by the ELCA.” During his tenure, the


ELCA also began grappling with the issue of the historic episcopate in discussions with the Episcopal Church. The ELCA insisted that a bishop remain a pastor with certain oversight responsibilities. The discussion led to the 1999 full-communion agreement in which the


Episcopalians agreed to honor the ELCA’s stance. The ELCA “has been exemplary in setting the pace” in developing ecumenical partnerships, Chilstrom said.


Chilstrom is pleased the ELCA’s first mission statement remains: “We are a church so deeply and confidently rooted in the gospel of God’s grace that we are free to give ourselves joy- fully in witness and in service.” In his words, that statement is the touchstone by which the church will be sustained. “The focus in on the fact that the church is a gift of God’s grace,” he said. “We may work hard to organize it, but it is a creation of the Holy Spirit. If we can be faithful to the core under- standing of who we are, I know we are going to be all right.”


Mark Granquist, associate pro- fessor of church history at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., said it is to Chilstrom’s credit that the ELCA’s creation “certainly wasn’t the disas- ter that some of its critics thought it would be. It wasn’t the utopia that oth- ers thought it would be either. It was good that the whole thing didn’t go flying apart. It could have.” The book also presents a snapshot in time that future historians may use to paint a fuller picture, Chilstrom said. 


To order A Journey of Grace, call 888-696-1828 or go online at www.LutheranUPress.org.


12 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


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