Last week, my father Rev. Dr. Anssi Simojoki, together with four other pastors, was defrocked by the Cathedral Chapter (the governing body) of the Archdiocese of Turku in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. His crime: participation in the life and work of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland. You can read about the…
The Catechism as the Glue of the Church
… only by this means can there be a bonding of families with the Catechism, agreement between educated and uneducated, or a closing up of the vast gulf between elite Christianity and Christianity for the common folk …, the fact that the rift can only be healed by way of a discipline which treats the…
New Confessional Lutheran Diocese in Finland
Last Saturday (16 March 2013), The Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland was formed in Lahti, Finland. At the same time, the gathered delegates (pastors and lay delegates from the founding congregations) elected Rev. Risto Soramies, as the first bishop of the Diocese. Pastor Soramies, a veteran missionary to the Turks in Germany and Turkey…
Salt, not honey
Well, a man can't live on jam, and neither can a Christian society. Our Heavenly Father said mankind was the salt of the earth, son, not the honey. And our poor world's rather like old man Job, stretched out in all his filth, covered with ulcers and sores. Salt stings on an open wound, but…
Church as Community
Since ... salvation is given by Christ, it's certainty can only be further planted by Christ. They must therefore progress from the concept of community which is always a subjective thing and only the consequence of the planting done by Christ and the continued planting of the certainty of salvation intended by him to the…
From shore to shore
… as in the Isaac Watts hymn, "Jesus Shall Reign", which we sang this morning at Our Saviour and in the evening at the Brighton Mission. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore Till moons shall wax and wane no more. Which was a poignant thing to sing at Brighton, where we also celebrated the…
Confessional Lutheran Pastor Defrocked in Sweden
HT: Chris Barnekov of Scandinavia House Leading Swedish Confessional Pastor Defrocked for Support of Mission Province The consistory of Lund Diocese has declared Pastor Jan-Erik Appell no longer authorized to serve as a pastor in the Church of Sweden. Pastor Appell is retired after nearly 40 years of faithful service. A complaint was filed by…
On megastars and small-time ministers
As has become well known, Mark Driscoll has managed to be very rude about Christian ministers in the UK. The essence of his criticism is that there are no nationally famous young "Bible teachers" in this country, and so we are a lot of cowards who aren't telling the truth. I have no doubt that…
Losing the reason for the season
Christmas is prime time for Christian hand-wringing at the state of the world, more so it seems than Easter. It's at Christmas that we find ourselves lamenting most loudly, persistently and at length at just how far secularisation has advanced. Not a single Christian carol at Tescos, no manger scene at Debenhams, cards galore with…
Letter from Iranian pastor on death row
This is a letter from Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani written from prison in Iran earlier this year. Pastor Youcef currently faces the death sentence for apostasy – conversion from Islam to Christianity – and is waiting for the court’s final verdict. Please continue to pray. This message has been translated from Farsi to English. Dear brothers…
SimonPotamos 