Convinced that there could be no fellowship without first reaching doctrinal agreement, the 2,744,574-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has long stood aside from association with other U.S. Lutheran bodies and even more from the Christian ecumenical move ment. But at its triennial convention in Detroit's Cobo Hall last week, the Synod's 2,000 delegates voted to form a cooperative service agency with the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America and the tiny (20,000 members) Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.
The new agency is the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., which is scheduled...