The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said Sunday he was disappointed with the World Council of Churches's decision to co-sponsor a dinner and dialogue last week with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Hanson, who also heads the 63.5 million-member Lutheran World Federation, was in York to preach at the 275th anniversary of Christ Lutheran Church and sat for a brief interview with the York Daily Record.
Hanson said he wasn't invited to the honorary event Sept. 25 in New York. The meeting drew criticism and protests from a few Catholic and Jewish groups.
The ELCA is a member of the World Council of Churches, and Hanson said he sent word to the WCC via his staff that he was unhappy about the council's decision to participate.
"It's not helpful to reinforce a leader who's denied the Holocaust and called for the elimination of Israel, through a public meeting or dinner to suggest we support that kind of action," Hanson said.
"Every politician manages to turn a public event toward their self-interest. ... As a religious leader, I always need to be careful about with whom I meet."
The Christian groups behind the Sept. 28 event have ties to the peace churches, which say that, for them, peacemaking is a duty: The Mennonite Central Committee, the American Friends Service Committee, Quaker United Nations Office and Religions for
Peace.
Hanson wasn't the only U.S. church leader with such feelings. The Rev. John Thomas, president and general minister of the United Church of Christ (another WCC member), said last week he was invited but wouldn't attend the meeting because he wasn't convinced it would be effective:
"To the contrary, I fear the occasion can and will be used by President Ahmadinejad to claim legitimacy and support for himself by an association with respected United States religious leaders. I respect the sponsoring organizations' intent for dialogue, but fear that the more likely outcome is sowing confusion and disappointment among our own members and, in particular, the American Jewish community."
During Sunday's interview, Hanson also discussed the ELCA's declining membership and the importance of preaching. He noted that, like other mainline Protestant denominations, the ELCA is struggling to keep members and attract a diverse crowd.
He said members are on average 15 years older than the population at large; 97 percent white; and the church is losing 50,000 members a year.
-- On "Lutheran laryngitis" (the reticence of some Lutherans to speak with non-believers about their faith):
"I'm sick and tired of ELCA members not acting our name. The first word in our name is 'Evangelical' -- but the first thing you'll hear Lutherans say is 'Ah, but we're not like those other evangelicals.
"I think Lutherans in this culture are almost congenitally -- we became for so many years confident that the culture would produce Christians for us. ... That we could replenish our church through our own tribe, if you would. That day is long over ...
"I literally have people practice in lectures talking to people about their faith. We struggle, we fumble, we think it's the pastor's job. ... But we describe the life of all baptism as sharing the good news."
"We Lutherans like to say we witness with our deeds more than our words. That's OK. It's a little hiding."
-- Hanson hopes better, more imaginative preaching would improve Lutherans' familiarity with the language of the faith:
"I want to have conversations about preaching, have pastor talks about preaching. How do we prepare? Because, quite frankly, I hear a lot of laity complain about preaching.
"We need imaginative preaching. ... If I were a synod bishop again, I think I'd not preach as much on visits to congregations. I'd preside, but during the sermon I'd sit and listen"
(and critique the sermon later during the week).
"This is a daunting time to preach when everyone's attention span is getting shorter. Still, I'm not going to succumb to a sound-bite culture."
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