DELTO a Danger to Pastoral Education

It is my humble opinion that we should NOT do anything but resist DELTO (Distance Education Leading To Ordination) and ANY other alternate route to ordination. We need to look the Council of Presidents, Synodical President, the Seminary faculties in the eye and say "NO! Delto or any other alternate route is not an option! For the good of the Church, this cannot be an option!"

1. The seminaries were established expressly for the task of training and evaluating men for the Holy Office. This is their task, it is the way it should be and they are very good at what they do. This was one of the original reasons for forming a synod in the beginning.

2. District run "alternatives" to traditional seminary education will do nothing but further divide an already fractured synod. DELTO and any other alternative may be the final death blow for whatever hope there is for real synodical unity.

3. These alternative routes are just another way the liberals are saying that they don't like what is now coming out of our seminaries...i.e. Confessional Pastors who know their business and have the courage and will, to speak up and defend Scripture, the Confessions while pointing out errant theologies and practices of certain officials.

4. Dumbing down pastors, layministers, and whoever else, to provide a "minimum of quality service", is insulting to the Church, her Lord and the lay people who we (ordained pastors) are supposed to defend. How many of us would want to go to an MD who went to an "alternative route" to be certified, rather than a qualified Med School?

No brothers, I don't see how we can go along with any of this. If the Holy Office is the most important Office on earth; if we really are charged with being care takers of souls who the Lord died for; if we are Stewards of the Mysteries; if we really do hold the Keys to the Kingdom...how can we slacken our standards? How can we dare to make it easier or more convenient, just for the sake of numbers? We will be complicit in creating a second class ministerium within the synod, which will do nothing but damage the Church. We should not lower the bar to make it easier...we should raise the bar and inspire men to the challenge.

The seminaries know their business and should be about the business they exist for, i.e. training and evaluating men for the Holy Office. If we water down the standard, we are helping no one. If the COP and the districts want to "make it easier," let them find a way to pay for the man's education! A seminary education...now that would help!

My $.02

Rev. Fr. Eric M. Christiansen
Pastor, St. John Lutheran Church
Libby, MT

Click here for a hymnic parody on the DELTO program.
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