wfn.org | US Presbyterian Church ratifies full communion with Lutherans

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

CHICAGO/GENEVA, 26 March 1998 (elca/lwi) - Eighty-eight presbyteries of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted as of March 11 to ratify an agreement
declaring "full communion" between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) and three churches of the Reformed tradition. An affirmative
vote by a majority of the 172 presbyteries was the final hurdle to be
crossed before the relationship became official.

After 36 years of dialogues a festival worship service at Chicago's
Rockefeller Chapel, Oct. 4, will formally declare the churches in full
communion. Full communion is not a plan to merge; it commits the churches
to sharing in their mission to work locally and internationally and to
develop procedures whereby clergy in one church body may serve as pastor in
a church of another church body.

Assemblies of the ELCA and three Reformed churches - Presbyterian Church
(USA), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ - approved "A
Formula of Agreement," a proposal for full communion, in 1997. Presbyterian
approval required ratification by a majority of the church's presbyteries
on two amendments to the church's "Book of Order."

The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America was the first body to
approve the agreement June 18 in Milwaukee. A voice vote of the 250
delegates recorded only a few "no" votes. That synod also passed a
resolution clarifying that the three Reformed churches were already in
"full table and pulpit fellowship," a relationship similar to full
communion, "by virtue of Reformed polity and the fellowship shared through
membership in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches."

The 209th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted 489 to 38
in favor of full communion with the ELCA on June 19 in Syracuse, N.Y. That
vote set the stage for ratification of the proposal by the church's
presbyteries.

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ invited the ELCA into full
communion July 5 in Columbus, Ohio. About 10 of the 700 delegates voted in
opposition.

The ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted 839 to 193 in favor of the proposal on
Aug. 18. A two-thirds majority was needed for passage, and 81.3 percent of
the voting members approved the relationship.

Membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America totals 5,200,000,
in the Presbyterian Church (USA) 3,700,000, in the Reformed Church in
America 300,000, and in the United Church of Christ 1,500,000.

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