Bishop Obare Preaches at Pres. Harrison's Installation

On September 11, 2010, the Rev Matthew Harrison was officially installed as the president of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Above is an all-too brief snippet of the sermon delivered in the chapel of Concordia Seminary - St. Louis by the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya, the Most Rev. Walter Obare.

Bishop Obare is a true hero of the faith. He bucked the extremely powerful (and apostate) Lutheran (sic) World Federation and the condescending and defied the threatening archbishop of the Church (sic) of Sweden on February 5, 2005 when he consecrated the Rt. Rev. Arne Olssen to be an indigenous Mission Province bishop to serve the faithful remnant within Sweden (and later Finland) by providing a path for faithful priests and deacons to be ordained. Bishop Obare was awarded the Sabre of Boldness award by Gottesdienst - a tribute to his courage, fidelity, and status as a true Lutheran confessor. Bishop Obare paid a high price in terms of LWF retribution - but he remains faithful and steadfast to the Bible and the Lutheran confessions. His courage is an inspiration to Bible-believing Christians everywhere - especially Lutheran clergy and laypeople.

It is impressive that he was chosen to be the preacher at this critical juncture in the LCMS.

I regret that this is the only bit of Bp. Obare's sermon that I have yet found (but I am also grateful to Pastor McCain for recording and posting this historic footage). Perhaps it will soon be available in its entirety. I have heard universal praise for Bp. Obare's sermon. Pr. Thomas Messer described it gloriously as "dripping with the Blood of Christ."

As a postscript, here is Pr. Weedon's description of the Installation Service.