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99-130

August 19, 1999

For immediate release

Lutherans approve full communion with Moravians and Episcopalians

by James Solheim

(ENS) After three days of civil but intense debate, the Evangeli-
cal Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved by nearly a 70
percent majority a document that opens the way to full communion
with the Episcopal Church--and may provide new energy for the
ecumenical movement in a new century.

The final vote of 716 (69.3 percent) to 317 (30.7) met the
requirements of two-thirds of voting members at the Churchwide
Assembly in Denver. The document, Called to Common Mission, was
written after the ELCA failed by six votes to approve a Concordat
of Agreement at its 1997 assembly in Philadelphia. A few weeks
earlier the Episcopal Church's General Convention had over-
whelmingly approved the Concordat. The Lutherans did approve
full communion with the Presbyterians, United Church of Christ
and the Reformed Church in America.

In the wake of the 1997 vote, Lutherans appointed a writing
team, headed by Prof. Martin Marty of Chicago, to write a new
proposal that would address the objections that emerged at the
assembly. Episcopalians served as advisors to the writing team.
The document will be presented to the General Convention at its
meeting in Denver next summer.

If approved, the two churches would share mission strategies
and even clergy. In the most controversial provision, the
Lutherans would agree to join Episcopalians in the historic
episcopate, a sign of the church's continuity with the apostolic
church.

Well-organized opponents of full communion have argued
strenuously that agreement in Word and Sacrament is sufficient
for unity, that Lutherans should not be "required" to adopt the
historic episcopate. Lutherans in other parts of the world do
embrace the historic episcopate but it has never been part of
the American experience.

An incredible step

Speaking to the assembly following the vote, the Rev. David
Perry, the Episcopal Church's ecumenical officer, said, "This
is an incredible step you have taken. What hope for a new
century," he added, drawing on the theme of the Churchwide
Assembly.

In a prepared statement, read at a news conference by Bishop
Christopher Epting of Iowa, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold
said, "I pray that our response can be positive. The 30 long 
years of conversation and dialogue have come to fruition. The
promise of our deepening life together offers real hope for the
broken world. The test of our full communion will be our faith-
fulness to the Gospel in mission and witness, in prayer and
fellowship at God's altar. We ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in
the days ahead, to unfold and deepen our relationship."

"This is a big step for us--but we're not dancing yet,"
said Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson of the ELCA, pointing
out that the document must be approved by the Episcopal Church.
"We live in hope."

Yet the action to approve full communion with the 50,00
0-member Moravian Church, with only 11 negative votes, as well 
as with the Episcopal Church, is "a great step in our
ecumenical understanding," Anderson added. "And it is not the
end. We will continue to press forward."

Perry cautioned that the majority who favored full communion
should be "prayerful and sensitive" in recognition that 
over 30 percent of the assembly voted against CCM. "Healing is
a part of our new life together." He said that the
educational task, helping Episcopalians understand the new
document and how it differs from the Concordat of 1997, will
begin almost immediately. Epting said that there are
"substantial changes but ones that are consistent with the
document" and he did not anticipate much opposition among
Episcopalians.

A last-minute amendment gave Lutherans some "wiggle room"
on the requirement that bishops preside at all ordinations.
While agreeing with "the historic practice whereby the
bishop is representative of the wider church," and should
"regularly" preside, it concedes that there might be
emergency situations in which that would not be possible.

A first for an American church

Marty said that he celebrated both moves and said, from 
a historical viewpoint, it is the first time in U.S.
religious history that a church has bridged the gap between
churches so diversely governed--congregational, presbyterian,
synodical, conferencial and episcopal. In light of the new
relationships, the Lutheran vote could open the way for other
churches to consider the historic episcopate. "Many new
partnerships might lie ahead," he predicted.

Prof. J. Robert Wright of the General Seminary in New York,
an advisor to the ecumenical office and a partner in the
writing process, agreed. In an interview he said that
"Lutherans have bridged the gap of the Reformation and have
given a powerful new energy to the ecumenical movement for
the new millennium." He expressed his hope that the General
Convention would "embrace their decision" next summer.

Issue dominates agenda

Well before the Churchwide Assembly convened on August 16,
the issue of full communion with the Episcopal Church
threatened to dominate the agenda. Opponents deluged voting
members of the assembly with arguments against CCM,
occasionally stepping over the line with distortions and
stereotypes.

Marty said that the drafting team had been sensitive to
those who had serious reservations about CCM but, after
exploring a number of options, it was clear that none would
be acceptable to the Episcopalians. "All alternatives would
leave us short of full communion," he told the assembly in an
opening plenary. He said that CCM spells out the Lutheran
understanding of one ministry of Word and Sacrament and that
adopting the historic episcopate would not be a threat to
Lutheran traditions or doctrine..

As a church historian, Marty was obviously excited by the
potential role for Lutherans in a renewed ecumenical movement.
"Our timing is superb," heading into a new century and a new
millennium, and "rich in promise." Epting agreed, suggesting
that the freedom in the Gospel Lutherans exhibited in
embracing three Reformed churches in 1997, and a positive vote
for full communion with Episcopalians, would "confirm your pivot
al role as a bridge church."

Good people on both sides

Even though the debate over the coming days would be
occasionally tinged with acrimony, participants were convinced
that there are "good and faithful people on both sides of the
issue."

In his passionate dissent during a plenary presentation, the
Rev. Norman Wahl of Minnesota said that the move for full
communion had produced "greater divisiveness" in the ELCA.
He argued that "the vote is about the historic episcopate,
not relations between two churches." Presented as "a gift,"
the historic episcopate is in fact "a requirement that
jeopardizes the unity of the ELCA." CCM is "a diversion in
our mission," he concluded.

The Rev. Nancy Curtis of Indiana said that CCM provided
exciting possibilities for her ministry in rural north
east Indiana. During a congregational study of the proposal,
members noted the similarities between the two churches,
especially in liturgy, while expressing some concern about
how authority is expressed by leaders in the two churches.
Yet they concluded that "we are free as few others" to adapt
to innovation and to "be a church in full communion in ways
not possible for others."

Hearings expose deep feelings

"Can we have the relationship without the gift, please?"
said Prof. Cynthia Jurisson of the Lutheran School of Theology
in Chicago. She contended that Lutherans have always found
human structures unreliable and fallible and by adopting the
historic episcopate "we may lose our emphasis on Word and
Sacrament." She raised the possibility of "an ecumenical cul
de sac," where "we enter relationships only with churches
that already agree with us." And she said that the historic
episcopate itself is not a symbol of unity since the Roman
Catholics and Orthodox do not view it in the same way as
Anglicans.

Prof. Michael Root of Trinity Seminary in Ohio said that the
Reformers did not want to do away with the historic episcopate
but instead sought to reform the office. At the time bishops
were built into the political system, often serving as prince-
bishops, so reform was very difficult.

When the bishops did not accept reform, the Lutheran Reformers
"went on without them," said Prof. Todd Nichol of Luther
Seminary in Minnesota, speaking against CCM. The Reformers
agreed that the church could have bishops but they could
never be regarded as essential to the unity of the church. He is
convinced that the historic episcopate would be elevated to a 
position on the same level as Word and Sacrament under CCM.

"We are deeply divided," he added, "and cannot prudently,
wisely and constructively proceed" by approving CCM.

Epting pointed out that Anglicans had a very different
experience of bishops, observing that in England "they led the
reform," some of them martyred for their efforts. "So it was
possible for us to maintain the historic episcopate... We broke
with Rome, not with the Christian church of history."

Root said that Lutherans had a "providential opportunity" to
show that order is good--but not necessary--by entering full
communion with those who hold other understandings of how the
church should be ordered. And he said that it would not be
possible to "de-Lutheranize" the millions of Lutherans in other
churches around the world who have maintained the historic
episcopate.

Mission or division?

During debate in open plenaries, dozens crowded around 12
microphones on the floor, red for those opposed, green for
proponents. After a while the similarity of the arguments
became numbing but Anderson patiently and graciously guided
the proceeding, occasionally using humor to relieve the tension.

CCM is not a mission document, it is a failed paradigm that 
is more interested in maintenance than mission, argued a man
from Ohio. No, CCM provides us a unified Christian witness as we
face a new millennium, counters a woman from Florida. And it
gives us new partners in mission, argued another.

"Don't vote against this for trivial reasons," warned Timothy
Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley.

Bishop Steven Ullestad of Northeastern Iowa , who has emerged
as one of the most articulate proponents of CCM, said that 
he had changed his mind over the years. Countering the charge
that the Episcopal Church is hierarchical, he said,
"Episcopalians believe laity is the foundational order," that
CCM addressed Lutheran concerns about orders in the church and
"we have the opportunity to create an episcopate that is
historic and evangelical."

Several speakers said that the controversy over full communion
had exposed an identity issue for Lutherans and that it ma
y not be wise to enter such an important relationship without
more cohesion in the ELCA. "I don't feel we know who we are and
there are things we must settle before we can enter this
agreement," said a layman from Illinois.

Quickly someone else said, "We are paying too much attention
to the boisterous winds of our doubts. It is time to trust
the Holy Spirit." But others said that the agreement with the
Moravians was "elegantly evangelical" while CCM represented a
path toward more division in the church.

The wider context

The Rev. John Thomas, now president of the United Church
of Christ who is credited with the successful vote for full 
communion with the Reformed in 1997, offered some perspective.
"Your future is our future. If it were possible for you to
take this step to adopt CCM with integrity, it would be a sign 
of your capacity to bring evangelical and catholic and Reformed
traditions together, something which has been one of the most
difficult issues in the ecumenical movement. If you move 
forward, you will encourage us to take up these issues again
with renewed energy."

In what some observers said may have been a critical comment
in acceptance of CCM, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary
of the Lutheran World Federation representing 128 member
churches in 70 countries and about 60 million members, said 
that the decision would affect "sister churches around the
globe. He predicted that Anglicans and Lutherans in Africa
would be in full communion within five years, clearly inviting
the ELCA to join an international trend.

While it is clear that the ELCA has a serious challenge to
heal the clear divisions that emerged in considering CCM,
early signs suggested that the opponents would accept the
will of the majority "in Christian love" and move forward. 

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office
of News and Information and covered the Churchwide Assembly
for ENS.