"This is my [relative] by God's grace."

Factual Questions
1

I recently attended a wedding at a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. The program listed the families of the bride and groom, viz.:



Sean's mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Abigail Smith
Rebecca's father . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Joseph Brown

and so on. One entry was:



Rebecca's maternal grandmother 
                           by God's Grace . . . . . . . . . Maude Jones

At the reception, the bride’s father introduced his brothers, and introduced one as “my brother by God’s Grace, Peter.”

I was raised ELCA, and consider myself relatively knowledgable (for an atheist) about Protestantism, but I haven’t the foggiest notion what that’s supposed to mean. I have no idea if it’s something to do with their relationship, or if its something about the person themselves (recently “Born Again”?) Can anyone enlighten me?

2

I’ve never run into this, but it doesn’t sound like a code for “born again.” My hunch, which is purely a hunch, is that the people who are “relatives by God’s grace” are adoptive. I.e., the maternal grandmother adopted the mother; the brother bGg Peter was adopted, etc. Bringing a person into an adoptive relationship could easily be seen from an ELCA standpoint as an act of God’s grace.

3

Yeah, I had the same hunch, Poly.

BTW, this family seemed to be Missouri Synod (though I’m not sure if they all were), not ELCA. I haven’t heard the “by God’s Grace” terminology with respect to familial relationships in typical ELCA use at all (or at least not that I remember.) It’s usually used to refer to, ya know, bein’ saved by God’s grace thought Jesus Christ (which made me guess the Born Again angle) or to give thanks to God for protection or help or to give Him credit good works, like “we have come from all parts of the country to gather here by God’s grace,” or “by God’s grace, we’ve raised enough money through our fundraiser to build a new home for Brother Timothy and Sister Rose to replace the house that burned down.” It’s the latter context that made me think adoption, too, but I wonder if there’s some special LCMS meaning to it.

4

I was raised LCMS, and I’ve never heard the terminology. Then again, I was raised in California, with crazy things like women elders.

5

Whooo boy, panamajack, you woulda loved this wedding service. The pastor started right off the bat with Ephesians 5:21. And it kept going. And going. And going.

6

Another lapsed LCMS gal who never heard of this.