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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace, mercy and peace to you in Jesus Christ.
As church workers, we daily face a host of challenges as we tend to
those the Lord has placed under our care. While issues of sexual
morality have always numbered among those challenges, the culture’s
recent push, especially with regard to gender and sexual identity,
warrants a purposeful study of the matter.
To better equip both church workers and lay people to understand and
discuss this issue, the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations
(CTCR) has written and approved an immensely helpful paper: “Gender
Identity Disorder or Gender Dysphoria in Christian Perspective.” You can download it here.
It is my prayer that you will read it, learn by heart what our Lord has
to say on the matter and discuss it with your peers so that you may
stand ready to care for those who come to you struggling with their own
understanding of gender and sexuality.
And they will come to you. We have men and women, church workers and
students in the LCMS who are confused about their gender. They are in
need of pastoral care, God’s Word spoken in love and, above all,
Christ’s forgiveness. For, as the CTCR has rightly noted, “Nothing is
more powerful in the life of every person — for all of us fallen people —
than the forgiveness that is given through the suffering and death of
our Lord Jesus.”
May our merciful Lord’s blessings be upon your study of His Word and also upon those hurting for whom you care.
In Christ,
The Rev. Matthew C. Harrison
President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
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