wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Lutherans, Methodists move step closer to full communion

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8853 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05428
August 19, 2005

Lutherans and Methodists 
are step closer to full communion 

by Chris Herlinger
Ecumenical News International  

NEW YORK - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has moved closer
to full communion with the United Methodist Church (UMC).  
  
	In one of several actions taken during the ELCA's Aug. 8-14 assembly,
delegates voted 877 to 60 to approve an "interim Eucharistic sharing"
agreement with the United Methodists, who approved the pact in April 2004.  
  
	The agreement caps 30 years of ecumenical dialogue between the
denominations and paves the way to full communion, although no timetable was
set for that move.  
  
	"We have invited each other into each other's house," Bishop William
Oden, ecumenical officer of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, told the
United Methodist News Service on Aug. 12. Oden, who attended the Lutheran
assembly, called the vote "an historic moment" for both denominations.	
  
	During an interim "testing" period, the two churches will engage in
joint celebrations of the Eucharist. If eventual agreement over full
communion is achieved, the two denominations could share clergy. Such a move
could help both in areas where parishes have trouble maintaining full-time
staff.	
  
	Full communion agreements have become increasingly common in recent
years in what are known in the U.S. as "mainline Protestant" denominations.
The ELCA, for example, already has such agreements with the Episcopal Church,
the Moravian Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in
America and the United Church of Christ.  
  
	The UMC is the largest mainline denomination in the United States,
with 8.2 million members. The ELCA, the nation's largest Lutheran
denomination, has 4.9 million.	
  
	In other news from the ELCA Assembly, Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson,
who is also president of the Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation, called
for an international meeting to discuss the issue of Biblical authority.
Handon said Christianity is facing an identity crisis and must combat a
"fundamentalist-millennialist-apocalypticist reading of scripture."  
  
	On Aug. 9, Hanson said, "Christianity is in the midst of a global
identity crisis, because we have not addressed ecumenically the questions of
authority and interpretation of scripture."

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