wfn.org | Breakthroughs in Anglican-Lutheran relations

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

An example of "remarkable progress"

CANTERBURY, England/GENEVA, 20 August 1998 (lwi/eni) -The world's Anglican
bishops, meeting in Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference, from July 19 to
August 9, hailed major breakthroughs in Anglican-Lutheran relations.

According to Ecumenical News International (ENI), on Tuesday, August 4, the
700-plus Anglican bishops attending the conference unanimously passed a
resolution welcoming "the remarkable progress in Anglican-Lutheran
relationships during the last decade in many parts of the world".

The resolution declared that the bishops "rejoice" in the Porvoo agreement
- which was signed in 1996 and established communion between the Anglican
churches of the British Isles and the Lutheran churches in the Nordic and
Baltic states - and in the Meissen Common Statement agreed with the
Evangelical Church in Germany. The Meissen agreement of 1988 has led to
increased cooperation between the Church of England and German Protestants,
but stops short of recognizing each other's ministries as
"interchangeable".

The resolution welcomes progress made towards communion between the
Anglican churches in Britain and Ireland and the Lutheran and Reformed
churches of France, as well as between Anglicans and Lutherans in Canada.
It also expresses hope that attempts to reach communion between Lutherans
and Anglicans in the United States will prove successful.

This Lambeth Conference marked a historic point in Lutheran-Anglican
relations. For the first time three Lutheran bishops - from Nordic churches
linked to Anglicans by the Porvoo agreement - attended the gathering, as
bishops "in communion" with Anglican churches.

At a press conference about ecumenism on Friday, July 31, Lambeth bishops
discussed progress in Anglican links with several major confessions, but
singled out links with Lutherans as an example of outstanding advances.

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Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
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