wfn.org | ELCA Assembly Conducts Hearings on Ecumenical Proposals

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 18, 1999

ELCA ASSEMBLY CONDUCTS HEARINGS ON ECUMENICAL PROPOSALS
99-CWA-15-CA/FI

     DENVER (ELCA) -- The 1999 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will vote on proposals to enter into
"full communion" with The Episcopal Church and the Moravian Church in
America.  Six hearings were held Aug. 17 to let voting members ask
questions about the proposals before debating them on the assembly
floor.
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA, is meeting Aug. 16-22 here at the Colorado Convention Center.
There are more than 2,500 people participating, including 1,039 ELCA
voting members.  The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ
Known: Hope for a New Century."
     Four hearings took questions about "Called to Common Mission"
(CCM), which is an ELCA proposal for full communion with the Episcopal
Church.  Two hearings were held on "Following Our Shepherd to Full
Communion," which the Moravian Church approved in 1998.  About 300
people attended each hearing.
     Full communion does not commit churches to merge.  They would
agree to a closer working relationship and freer exchange of clergy.
     Lutherans and Episcopalians agree on the doctrine of "apostolic
succession," an ongoing faithful proclamation of Christ.  Episcopalians
bring to the relationship the "historic episcopate," a succession of
bishops as a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian
church.
     The Rev. Fred S. Opalinski, Trinity Lutheran Church, Latrobe, Pa.,
moderated two hearings on the Lutheran proposal for full communion with
the Episcopal Church.  Opalinski is a member of the ELCA Church Council
who serves on the advisory committee of the church's Department for
Ecumenical Affairs.
     In the hearing, voting members questioned Dr. Cynthia Jurisson,
associate professor of American church history, Lutheran School of
Theology at Chicago; the Rev. Martin E. Marty, Lutheran chair of the CCM
drafting team; and the Rev. Canon David W. Perry, ecumenical officer of
The Episcopal Church.  Jurisson spoke against the proposal; Marty spoke
in favor; and Perry represented the Episcopal Church.
     The Rev. Todd W. Nichol, associate professor of church history,
Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and Dr. Michael J. Root, professor of
systematic theology, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, fielded
questions in two other hearings.  Nichol spoke against, and Root spoke
in favor.  Bishop Christopher Epting of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa
represented the Episcopal Church.  The Rev. Karen S. Parker, ELCA Church
Council member and assistant to the bishop of the Pacifica Synod,
Huntington Beach, Calif., moderated those hearings.
     Nichol and Root served with Marty as Lutheran members of the
drafting team that wrote CCM.
     Nichol, who refused to sign the final document, told the hearing
that requiring the adoption of the historic episcopate, for the sake of
ecumenical fellowship, does not "comport with Holy Scripture or the
Confessions of this church."  Ecumenical agreements should not entail
one party demanding something from another, he said.
     Root called the proposed agreement a "stunning ecumenical
breakthrough."  To turn it down because of the historic episcopate would
be "saying 'no' to three quarters of the Christians in the world," he
said.
     Questions at the hearing focused on why the historic episcopate
was "necessary" if the proposal says that Episcopalians already
recognize Lutheran pastors.  Root explained that the episcopate was not
"necessary" for salvation or to be recognized as a "church" by the
Episcopalians, but was a valid "sign" of church unity and governance.
     Nichol argued that the issue was so divisive that the decision
should not be made.  A similar proposal failed by six votes at the
ELCA's 1997 assembly in Philadelphia.
     "We are already in full fellowship," Nichol said, because
Lutherans and Episcopalians have stated that they agree on the
essentials of the Christian faith. "Requiring something else," he said,
"is like saying to someone 'will you marry me?' and then asking 'will
you have plastic surgery?'"
     Root said both parties were being asked to make some changes for
the sake of Christian unity.  "It is like a marriage," he said, "where
everyone changes for the sake of the family."
     Members of the audience complained at several points that only one
member of the panel presented a dissenting viewpoint while all other
resource people seemed to favor the proposal.  The hearings were
organized to take comments from the voting members -- rotating between
opposing and supporting remarks.
     Voting members questioned how Lutheran pastors in Episcopal
churches, and vice versa, could teach the doctrines of the other church
body without having to believe them.  Marty said it was very much like
non-Lutherans teaching at ELCA colleges.  They are asked to be "friendly
to the venture," he said.
     Jurisson said the ELCA is in "complimentary" relationships with
other church bodies and is considering such an affiliation with the
Moravian church.  "Maybe, for the sake of ministry, we could understand
the historic episcopate in such a way that is not so 'locked into' the
Episcopal tradition."  She said the historic episcopate would force the
ELCA into "an ecumenical cul-de-sac" in its relationships with other
churches.
     Lutherans have held that church structures cannot guarantee
faithfulness, said Jurisson, but they can respect other structures such
as that of the Episcopal Church.  "Let differences define us but not
divide us," she urged.
     To maintain the historic episcopate, a bishop in succession must
be present to "lay hands on" someone being ordained.
     The authority to ordain in the Lutheran church comes from "the
priesthood of all believers," said Jurisson, referring to a Lutheran
principle that the faith is maintained by all Christians and not solely
by bishops or the ordained.
     The authority to ordain in the Episcopal Church comes from "the
ministry of the baptized," said Perry.  As a servant of the church, the
bishop ordains on behalf of the diocese, he said.
     The historic episcopate is often portrayed as a "gift" the ELCA is
to receive from the Episcopal Church as they enter into full communion.
Jurisson said, if Lutherans reject the "gift," then there is no full
communion.  That makes the "gift" a requirement, she said.
     The Rev. Steven L. Ullestad, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Iowa
Synod, asked Jurisson not to think of full communion as a gift or a
requirement but as "what God is creating."  He said Lutherans could
influence the succession of bishops to be "an evangelical episcopate" in
which bishops are measured more by the gospel than by their office.
     The Lutheran-Moravian proposal for full communion has received
little opposition among Lutherans.  Carol L. Weiser, ELCA Church Council
member, Bethlehem, Pa., moderated hearings on that agreement.  The Rev.
Otto Dreydoppel Jr., director of Moravian studies, Moravian Theological
Seminary, fielded questions with the Rev. R. Burke Johnson, president of
the Moravian Northern Province, and the Rev. Robert E. Sawyer, president
of the Moravian Southern Province.

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