Officials Face Sanctions for Interfaith 9/11 Event
Top officials of Valparaiso University in Indiana could face sanctions from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod after holding an interfaith event to mark the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The denomination forbids interfaith worship. For holding the Sept. 11 event, Alan Harre, president of the university in Valparaiso, and Joseph Cunningham, its pastor, could lose their status as clergy, but because the university does not get money from the denomination, the action would not directly affect the school.
The event at the Valparaiso chapel, called “A Community Gathering of Remembrance, Repentance and Renewal,” was not promoted as a religious service.
“While our differences may prevent us from praying together, they do not prevent us from gathering together to pray,” Cunningham had said in a news release issued prior to the event.
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