Brothers Together in Unity
From the Field September 19, ’14
How pleasant and how fair for brothers to dwell together in unity. Ps. 133:1 Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Pastor Jean Pierre Blanchard and his wife Catharine in Athis Mons south of Paris. Though many miles and a great ocean separate us, we are united in our teaching and faith in the Lord of all the earth. In 1997 a committee of the CLC determined that we were in fellowship with Pastor Blanchard and his congregation in Paris. A subsequent CLC Convention recognized this. But time passed and the congregation disbanded and we lost contact with Pastor. We recognized that we no longer had fellowship, since this is not a matter of writings on paper but in reality a practice. Then a couple years ago we made contact again culminating with a face to face meeting in August of ’13 to go over the hiatus that happened between us and its causes. For our part I apologized to him for our lack in keeping up contact with him, especially during a very trying time for him.
This August I was glad to make a trip to the Blanchards’ home and give them communion, a fitting expression of our union in Christ. We plan, God-willing, to make yearly visits to our brother and sister. While Pastor Blanchard does not serve a congregation, he is not idle in propounding true Lutheran teaching in print and on the radio especially. He has prayers for our work together just as we do. This is a reminder of how we seek to have fellowship, something to be desired as we speak the same thing and are united in our teaching of the Word. May God bless our renewed fellowship and may others be influenced in France to the truth of God’s Word by the word and work of Pastor Blanchard.