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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 27, 2003

LUTHERAN ECUMENICAL REPRESENTATIVES MEET IN SAVANNAH
03-108-FI

     SAVANNAH, Ga. (ELCA) -- Members of the Lutheran Ecumenical
Representatives Network (LERN) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) held their annual meeting here May 12-15, during the
National Workshop on Christian Unity.  A leading topic of the meeting
was how agreements the ELCA has reached with other church bodies can be
"lived out" in the ELCA's 10,766 congregations and other ministry
settings.
     Congregations of the ELCA are organized into 65 synods, each
headed by a bishop.  Each bishop names one representative to LERN, which
is coordinated through the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
     The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, gave the
representatives six "descriptors" for their work: creating expectations
that to be Lutheran is to be ecumenical; helping the church implement or
"receive" ecumenical agreements; providing the church with "ecumenical
imagination"; affirming the church's work in ecumenism; identifying and
helping shape future ecumenical leaders; and "agitating" the church to
continue toward its goal of full communion with other Christians.
     The ELCA is in full communion with the Episcopal Church, Moravian
Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in
America and United Church of Christ.  Full communion means the churches
recognize each other's ministries and sacraments, and, under certain
circumstances, allows for the exchange of ministers.
     In a question-and-answer session with the Lutheran ecumenical
representatives, Hanson was asked "how to raise the ecumenical question
in a climate where ecumenism usually means conflict."  Hanson said part
of the representatives' task was to change the climate from one of
conflict to one of Christian cooperation.
     "Called to Common Mission" (CCM), the full-communion agreement of
the ELCA and the Episcopal Church, has drawn criticism for requiring
Lutheran bishops to ordain new ELCA clergy after the pact went into
effect in 2001.  The ELCA's 2001 Churchwide Assembly adopted a bylaw
that allows a bishop, under unusual circumstances, to designate another
pastor to preside at an ordination.
     Lutheran ecumenical representatives opposed the bylaw when it was
being considered, and several asked Hanson here to emphasize the unusual
nature of any exception a bishop might grant under the bylaw.
     Hanson explained that considering an exception is a "pastoral"
function of a bishop, and it is difficult for bishops to establish
general guidelines for the process.  Each request must be considered on
its own merits, he said, pointing out that the five exceptions granted
represent fewer than 1 percent of all ELCA ordinations since 2001.
     Representatives told Hanson that the WordAlone Network, an
organization of Lutherans opposed to "a mandated historic episcopate,"
had sent a letter in March to all bishops of the Episcopal Church,
asking them to accept the exception as the norm.
     The letter, signed by the Rev. Jaynan Clark Egland, president, and
the Rev. Mark C. Chavez, director, asked Episcopal leaders "to express
support for changes in the implementation of CCM" at this year's General
Convention.  The changes WordAlone suggested would remove the
requirement that bishops preside over Lutheran ordinations.
     Hanson said it would be appropriate for LERN to act in response to
the WordAlone letter.
     Later the LERN board of directors drafted a letter to their
counterparts in the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers and to the
Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee, which oversees implementation
of CCM for the two churches.
     The Rev. Dennis A. Andersen, Bethany Lutheran Church, Seattle, is
president of LERN.  He said the LERN letter "re-articulated our own
resolve to carry out the understandings of the agreements in Called to
Common Mission."
     "We especially want to support the work of the coordinating
committee and reaffirm its primary role in helping the entire church
live into this [agreement] with open communication, mutual
understanding, great sensitivity and patience," said Andersen.
     The LERN board also saw this as an opportunity for the ecumenical
representatives to discuss the agreement with Lutheran bishops, asking
them to speak with the Episcopal bishops in their territories about
opposition to CCM within the ELCA.
     "I'd like to say how pleased I was to have Presiding Bishop Hanson
at our meeting," said Andersen.  Hanson also gave the closing address of
the National Workshop on Christian Unity.
     Considering the presiding bishop's schedule, his presence was a
sign of the priority he gives ecumenism, said Andersen, and of the
collegial nature of his relationship with Lutheran ecumenical
representatives.  "It was a great gesture," he said.
     From visits with pastors and lay members across the church, the
Rev. Randall R. Lee, director, ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs,
Chicago, told the representatives he had the sense that people were
still waiting for permission to work with other Christian churches.
     "I invite you to frolic in the ecumenical playground," Lee said.
"You do not need permission from Chicago.  You need the permission of
your bishop, who is the chief ecumenical officer of an ELCA synod," he
said.
     Lee gave the ecumenical representatives an "assignment" to gather
stories of congregations involved in ministries with other church
bodies.  As an example, he asked the Rev. Jon S. Enslin, interim
associate director, ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs, to discuss a
report he prepared for the presiding bishop.
     Through a series of interviews and surveys, Enslin prepared "So
What?" -- a 21-page report on ways the ELCA churchwide staff in Chicago
have begun working directly with their counterparts in one or more of
the full communion partner churches.
     Ecumenical representatives elected the Rev. Russell L. Meyer,
Faith Lutheran Church, Lakeland, Fla., and re-elected the Rev. G. Scott
Cady, St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church, Cornwall, Conn., and the
Rev. David A. Owren, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Fortuna, Calif., to
the LERN board.
     Representatives from each of the ELCA's nine regions elect a
member to a three-year term on the LERN board.	Three board members are
elected each year.  The board elects LERN officers.
     LERN's next annual meeting will be held May 10-13, 2004, at the
Doubletree Downtown Hotel, Omaha, Neb.

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