Missouri Synod president apologizes for 'debacle'
The president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has apologized for his role in the “debacle” that led him to publicly reprimand a pastor in Newtown, Connecticut, for praying at an interfaith service following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In the initial incident, the denomination’s president, Matthew C. Harrison, requested an apology from Pastor Rob Morris of Newtown’s Christ the King Lutheran Church for participating in an interfaith prayer vigil that followed the December 14 shootings. Morris’s role in the vigil broke denominational rules against joint worship with other religions.
Morris complied and apologized—not for his participation in the vigil (which he saw as an “act of community chaplaincy” rather than an act of joint fellowship), but for offending members of the St. Louis–based denomination.
