wfn.org | Porvoo Communion will address challenges facing Europe

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

First meeting after signing of agreement

TURKU, Finland/GENEVA, 26 March 1998 (lwi) - The Anglican and Lutheran
churches of northern Europe will address the challenges facing Europe
together. Church leaders of both confessions met in Turku, Finland, March
12-17, the first meeting of the Porvoo Communion since the solemn
ratification of the Porvoo Declaration in the fall of 1996. Among
challenges identified by the leaders was the erosion of traditional values
accompanied by "an inarticulated search for spirituality".

Participants in the Turku consultation represented some 50 million Anglican
and Lutheran Christians in Great Britain, Ireland and the Nordic and Baltic
countries. The Porvoo Communion today is composed of ten churches: on the
Lutheran side, the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Finland, Evangelical Lutheran Church - The National
Church of Iceland, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania, Church of
Norway and Church of Sweden; on the Anglican side, the Church of England,
Church of Ireland, Episcopal Church in Scotland and the Church in Wales.

The participants from the churches and ecumenical observers were welcomed
by Archbishop of Turku and Finland, John Vikstrom. A highlight symbolizing
the growing together within this new communion of churches was the
celebration of the Eucharist with the people of the city of Turku in their
cathedral, March 15. The preacher was Archbishop of York, David Hope.

The primates of the churches will meet next year. A theological
consultation is planned for in two years and a further consultation with
church leaders in four years. Meanwhile, the work will be continued by a
contact group chaired by Bishop of Porvoo, Erik Vikstrom, and Bishop of
Cashel and Ossory, John Neill, Ireland.

The Porvoo Declaration

The signatory churches, according to the Porvoo Declaration, regard
baptized members of each other's churches as members of their own. They are
committed to "welcome diaspora congregations into the life of the
indigenous churches, to their mutual enrichment" and to "welcome persons
episcopally ordained in any of our churches to the office of bishop, priest
or deacon to serve, by invitation and in accordance with any regulations
which may from time to time be in force, in that ministry in the receiving
church without re-ordination".

The Porvoo Declaration is part of the Porvoo Common Statement which
includes much important preliminary work, for example, a series of
theological conversations which took place between Anglicans and Lutherans
in the Nordic and Baltic regions until 1951, followed by several bilateral
and multilateral ecumenical dialogues. The Porvoo statement refers
specifically to reflections contained in the Niagara Report, issued as a
result of the 1987 consultation on episcope sponsored by the
Anglican-Lutheran International Continuation Committee. The final text of
the Porvoo Common Statement was adopted at a consultation held in
Jarvenpaa, Finland, in October 1992. The document takes its name from the
Finnish town of Porvoo in the cathedral of which participants in the
consultation jointly celebrated Holy Communion.

The original text of the Porvoo Common Statement which includes the Porvoo
Declaration was issued as Occasional Paper No. 3 by the Council of
Christian Unity of the General Synod of the Church of England, Church
House, Great Smith St., London SW1P 3NZ.

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