wfn.org | Porvoo Moves Ahead

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11/2/95
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon James M. Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion News Service
157 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8UT, England
Tel. 44 0171 620-1110    jim.rosenthal@ecunet.org
Fax 44 0171 620-1071

#750 ACC - 2 November 1995

Porvoo Moves Ahead

(LWI - Lutheran World Information) The Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Lithuania and the (Anglican) Church in Wales are the latest to
back the Porvoo Common Declaration.

The Porvoo statement offers a vision of 12 Anglican and Lutheran
Churches in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and in the Nordic and
Baltic countries carrying out their mission in close co-operation
with each other.

The Lithuanian Church gave overwhelming approval to the Porvoo
Declaration at its synod in July, reports the autumn issue of The
Window, the newsletter of the Anglican-Lutheran Society. Eighty-
three of the 85 votes cast backed the declaration.

The three orders (of laity, clergy and bishops) in the Church in
Wales gave unanimous approval to the declaration at the Church's
synod meeting, held at the end of September.

Eight of the 12 Churches (eight Lutheran and four Anglican) involved
have now endorsed Porvoo. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Iceland
will vote in October, and both the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Finland and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia will make
their decisions in November.

The bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark concluded
at their meeting in August that they could not formally approve the
declaration because there was not enough "reasonable support" from
Church members. However, the Danish Church will continue to
strengthen contacts with both the Anglican and Lutheran Churches
involved in Porvoo.