wfn.org | Lutheran-Reformed Planners Diagram Festival Worship

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 12, 1998

LUTHERAN-REFORMED PLANNERS DIAGRAM FESTIVAL WORSHIP
98-21-130-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Details surrounding a festival worship service at
Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel on Oct. 4 involved much of the discussion May
12 for a Lutheran-Reformed planning committee.  The service will formally
declare that, after 36 years of dialogues, the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) is entering into "full communion" with three U.S.
churches of the Reformed tradition -- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.
     "Within the relationship of full communion, participation together in
the Holy Eucharist is an important mark of the communion we now share as
church bodies," said a special report the committee adopted on "Guidelines
for Celebration of the Sacraments in Settings of Shared Worship."  The
report was prepared by a working group made up of the directors for worship
from each of the four church bodies.
     The Lord's Supper or Eucharist will be shared during the festival
worship service, so the guidelines may first be used in planning the Oct. 4
liturgy.  The Rev. Paul R. Nelson, ELCA director for worship, said the
document is primarily intended for what follows that service.
     "It is designed for use by congregations of the four church bodies
that are engaging in any kind of shared worship service," he said.  The
guidelines "outline the key ingredients for shared eucharistic worship,"
said Nelson, adding that "some guidance is provided for joint celebrations
of Baptism and other worship services as well."
     Assemblies of the ELCA and the three Reformed churches approved "A
Formula of Agreement," a proposal for full communion, in 1997.
Presbyteries officially ratified the relationship on March 11.
Ratification becomes official when the Presbyterian general assembly, June
13-20 in Charlotte, N.C., receives a report on the vote.
     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 pastors in
congregations of another church body.
     Among other details of the October worship the planning committee
discussed the protocols to be used for inviting guests and for assigning
tasks during the festival service.  The Rev. James Kenneth Echols,
president of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and the Rev.
Cynthia McCall Campbell, president of McCormick Theological Seminary,
Chicago, will lead the worship.  McCormick is a seminary of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
     On other topics the committee heard a report from the Rev. Eric C.
Shafer, director of the ELCA Department for Communication, on work the
communication departments of the four churches are doing together to use
available media in explaining "full communion" to the churches'
memberships.  He said the festival worship service will be videotaped, and
live audio will be available on the World Wide Web.
     The committee referred a letter from Bishop Paull E. Spring of the
ELCA's Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod to the churches' theological
conversations committee.  Spring asked the committee to consider a study of
full communion in the United States as it relates to the Leuenberg
Agreement of Lutheran and Reformed churches in other parts of the world.
     The group also discussed the procedures to be used in sending
representatives to meetings of each other's governing bodies.
     The planning committee represents the four church bodies in
implementing the new relationship of full communion and is chaired by the
Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary.  It will meet again Sept. 1.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html