Synod

While the first two changes were relatively easy to understand, this one you might have to ponder for a while, and I would fully expect some brotherly debate about it.

The Bible uses some words in a way that makes their definition rather important. "Justification" and its cognates are an example, as well as "sanctification" and its cognates. We're careful about how we use these words, so that we don't cause unnecessary confusion.

Other words can be just as important, though their special meaning comes from the way we use them, rather than the way they are used in the Bible. "Trinity" is a good example of that. In the PMW, the words "public," "private," "official," and "unofficial" are other examples.

Those four words are really two pairs of opposites, and they are not defined in the Bible. AC XIV uses the word "public" to describe the sort of preaching, teaching, and administration of the sacraments that requires a regular call. My own observation has noted that the Confessions usually mean "with many people" when they use the word "public," and they usually mean "with few people" when they use the word "private." While we are not bound to this usage, it is still noteworthy.

Meanwhile, the word "official" usually means "with authority pertaining to an office," while "unofficial" usually means "without the authority of any office."

Here's what the PMW says under the heading "The Office of the Keys", with a block of citations omitted to make it easier to see the problem:

God has given to His church on earth the Office of the Keys [citations here]. "The Office of the Keys is the special authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth ..."

This is not quite as important a point as the grammar problem I noted last time. It's a matter of tightening up the PMW so that it says what's needed as directly and clearly as possible. This particular problem comes from the department of redundancy department. Unless someone can explain to me the benefit of saying the same thing twice twice, I strongly suggest not doing so. I would recommend that the first sentence be omitted altogether. If any of its citations are too precious to omit, they can be placed after the quotation ends, as references to what's said in the quotation from the Catechism.

I hope that's clear enough. Hopefully, what I wrote is understandable.

Both of the Plucked Chicken's readers know that it tends to focus on matters of importance only within the ELS. In fact, a good bit of what I write about would be called "unimportant" by at least a few within the ELS. That's why I write about such things. It's why the Plucked Chicken exists. This is not a general-purpose blog, at least so far. I don't have time for recounting much from my own life, nor do I really think anyone would want to read it. Most of my personal interests are rather esoteric, and would therefore not be of interest to the general populace (any more than ELS matters are). But every group of people has a tendency to bury some topics that should be discussed, possibly in the vain hope that ignoring something will heal it. That doesn't work so well with infectious diseases or grave wounds in the body, and it doesn't work so well either in a body like the ELS. Healing requires attention, just as adopting a doctrinal statement requires complete, careful, and mutual deliberation. Such attention and deliberation have been wanting in the ELS. Hence, the Plucked Chicken.

As I have the opportunity, I will note some improvements that could be made to the PMW. Here's the first. It says (verbatim):

We reject the teaching that the Holy Spirit comes without the external Word but through their own preparations and works (AC V, Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, 9).

That's not really a quote from AC V. It's a paraphrase. Do you see the problem? It says "but through their own preparations and works." To whom does that pronoun refer? Hmmm. I'll give you a minute to think about it.

Remember, this is the actual quasi-sacred text of the PMW adopted by the ELS in 2005, the same text that, if challenged, can excite such written exclamations as, "What further need do we have of witnesses?"
If you give up, and would like me to reveal the antecedent of the pronoun, read on.