I got this from Dr. Secker, having read it some years ago and forgetting exactly where. It was a letter that Dr. Piepkorn wrote to a young seminarian who had contemplated leaving the Church of the Augsburg Confession for other shores in 1952.
[Copyright © 2006 American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. Reprinted with permission. Lutheran Forum, 40:3 (Una Sancta/Fall 2006): 48-55.
www.alpb.org]
Thank you for your letter of December 9. I believe that you have acted wisely in not deserting the Church of your Baptism and Confirmation for another obedience. In my experience there is nothing to which a Christian can legitimately aspire in any other communion that is not implicit in the Church of the Augsburg Confession. If, at a particular time or in a particular place, that which he seeks is not explicit, it may be that God has called him to that time and place in order patiently to recover something that the Church of the Augsburg Confession has lost or neglected or overlooked. Let me counsel you therefore to stay where you are and faithfully to pray, to study, to witness and to work for a restoration of sacramental life to the Church that above all others is capable of most fully utilizing it.
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