Not the type of service you expect from a District – MNS serves eviction papers to ULC.

In the past few days there has been a sequence of bad news for University Lutheran Chapel (ULC).  First, their restraining order was vacated, allowing the Minnesota South (MNS) District to quickly move again on eviction.  More bad news came in also in that the Doran Company received their building variance from the city of Minneapolis.

It appears that efforts to slow down this sale and eviction have not worked.  There is an eviction hearing on June 1st for the congregation.

There are a few things that need to be noted here:

MNS refused an offer for more money (according to court documents filed by ULC), the noticeable difference in offers was that the higher one allowed for a chapel to be created and used by the congregation.  Instead the smaller offer from Doran was accepted.  That does not appear to speak well for anyone thinking this is about the money.

The cloak of secrecy behind “executive sessions” has left room for all sorts of questions which could have been answered with some level of openness in this process.  Instead, the District has chosen secrecy.

The property of ULC was purchased by people of the MNS and Minnesota North (MNN) Districts to serve students at the University of MN.  That property was put in the stewardship of the MNS District, who has now sold it (contrary to the wishes of all those who donated gifts to purchase the property decades ago).  This is not good stewardship at all.  They have gone against the trust of those who first donated for ULC to exist.

President Sietz of the MNS District is retiring this year.  It appears that the eviction and sale of ULC will be his legacy.

So much for the Witness, Mercy, and Life Together of Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) Lutherans in the twin cities.

I will not add anything more than the plain and simple Word of God:

Matthew 20:25-26a

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you.

 

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