Source: Associated Press
On September 30, 2003 Associated Press reported that "the president and pastor of Valparaiso University have "repented" to members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for hosting an interfaith service in which Muslim and Jewish leaders offered prayers. The independent Lutheran university in northwestern Indiana hosted the service last year on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It came under scrutiny by leaders of the theologically conservative Missouri Synod because clergy who do not believe in the Holy Trinity led prayers in a Lutheran chapel... David Strand, a spokesman at the synod's headquarters in St. Louis, said the dispute shows 'the synod takes its doctrine and its clear public proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ very seriously'... 'At the same time, it shows that the synod, like other Christian church bodies, is trying to discern its proper role in an increasingly pluralistic society while staying true to its doctrines and practices,' Strand said."