Robert Furler, 44, a former ELCA pastor who had experienced increasing problems with mental illness, was shot and killed by state police July 4, after a daylong standoff. Furler was shot when he exited his house aiming a shotgun at the officers. His wife, Susan, and their three teenage children were not home. Furler wrote about his troubled youth in a March 1990 article, "From prodigal to pastor," for The Lutheran. In that story he spoke of finding the church and a call to ministry after using and selling drugs at an early age. After he failed to apply for reinstatement following disability leave, Furler was removed from the clergy roster in 1997, said Catherine Ziel, executive associate to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod bishop. Ordained in 1984, Furler served his first and only ELCA call at St. Mark Lutheran Church, Bethlehem, Pa., until 1993. He later served as interim pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation before starting an independent Christian church four years ago.
© 2013 Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Comments
Revival
Posted at 1:31 am (U.S. Eastern) 7/5/2008
What became of his church, that he pastored?
DON
Posted at 12:40 pm (U.S. Eastern) 11/18/2008
My opinion of the incident with Robert Furler is...HE WAS MURDERED. I know Robert Furler very well. He lives in the people he tried to guide and the ones he guided to better living.
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