Synod chief faces charges in prayer dispute

ST. LOUIS -- The leader of the nation's second-largest Lutheran denomination is under criticism for supporting a member who prayed at an interfaith ceremony for rescue workers and families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod president Gerald Kieschnick also faces charges from pastors for praying publicly with a leader from another Lutheran denomination near ground zero of the attacks that toppled the World Trade Center's twin towers.

The Missouri Synod is the ninth-largest Protestant denomination in America, with 2.6 million members in every state and about 60 foreign countries. It is based in suburban Kirkwood.

Pastors' conferences in four regions, including southern and central Illinois, have passed resolutions questioning Kieschnick's actions. Two pastors filed formal charges within the denomination.

Some pastors say the charges are just political. At the denomination's triennial convention in July, Kieschnick won a three-year term with just 50.8 percent of the votes, defeating three longtime supporters of the previous president, the late Rev. Alvin Barry.

Two pastors complain

In the wake of news reports Thursday of the criticism of Kieschnick, his office has fielded hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls universally supportive of Kieschnick, Missouri Synod spokesman David Strand said.

"Some of the news media is making it sound like the church is just torn asunder. Nothing is farther from the truth," Strand said, alluding to that fact that just two pastors have lodged the complaints.

The two events that brought criticism were both in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Sept. 23, Kieschnick allowed the Rev. David Benke, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Atlantic District, to say a 10-sentence prayer during the interfaith "A Prayer for America" service at New York's Yankee Stadium on Sept. 23. The ceremony included prayers by other Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs.

On Oct. 2, Kieschnick and Bishop H. George Anderson, former presiding bishop of the 5.1 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, another Lutheran group, toured ground zero and had a briefing session for 150 Lutheran chaplains and New York-area pastors. The group also prayed and sang hymns, Strand said.

The Rev. David Oberdieck, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Lebanon, Mo., is among those who filed charges, arguing such ecumenical events promote syncretism -- the mingling of Christianity and other religions, believing they are equal.

The denomination's church law allows pastors to jointly lead services only with clergy members in certain affiliated denominations -- primarily overseas Lutheran bodies.

"St. Paul said that we should flee idolatry but (Benke) did not flee idolatry," Oberdieck said. Benke "participated in idolatry, by participating with non-Christians."