A couple of days after my ordination, I was standing outside the window of the Sydsvenska Dagbladet in Lund, reading the news on a sunny May morning, when a comrade came up to me and asked: "Well, how does it now feel to have the character indelebilis?" It was 1922, liberal theology was in its heyday, and it was in good taste to joke about such things. I fell into the jargon and answered effusively that it did not feel as if, as far as I noticed, I had received the indelible character of the Office.

The Rev. Andrew Preus interviewed the Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt regarding the 25th anniversary of the Yankee Stadium incident and the recent book by Dr. David Behke and the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick on this topic.

When it comes to consecrating the elements of Holy Communion, pastors have one job. That job is to unite Word to element. It is our one job. The problem is with innovation. Some guys feel like they have to do object lessons, change the words around to make them more “special,” or move the elements for the sake of convenience.