wfn.org | General Convention faces historic d

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June 6, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1789
General Convention faces historic decision on full communion with
Lutherans

by Walt Gordon
   (ENS) After 30 years of Episcopal-Lutheran dialogue, a moment of
historic decision looms with the approaching General Convention of the
Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in July, and the Churchwide Assembly
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), also in
Philadelphia, in August. 
       The two national legislative bodies will vote on whether to approve
the Concordat of Agreement between their churches, bringing two of the
country's major mainline denominations into "full communion."
       While the outcome is still anybody's guess, early indications
suggest that the Episcopalians will approve the ground-breaking accord,
while approval by the Lutherans is less assured.
       In either church, however, as the summer season of decision
arrives, the issue is a favorite topic at diocesan and synod meetings, in
church newspapers, on on-line discussion groups and in national satellite
teleconference debates. 
   Some observers are convinced, in a convention that faces a number
of very contentious issues, this decision is a very positive attempt to
forge a whole new relationship between two churches.

Full communion means a sharing of gifts
   What is full communion? 
   According to the Lutheran-Episcopal Joint Coordinating Committee,
full
communion means a sharing of the gifts that have shaped the identity of
the two churches for 400 years, and a commitment to sharing the
challenges of mission at every level of the church's life.
   For Episcopalians, the gift to be shared is the historic episcopate,
tracing the line of bishops back into the apostolic era as a means for
handing on the faith and ministry of the church catholic from generation
to generation and guarding the unity of the church. 
   Lutherans bring the gift of their church's historic emphasis on
catechesis and apostolic doctrine, as represented in the Augsburg
Confession. The two churches are of one mind in recognizing the pivotal
importance of apostolic succession, even though this commitment to keep
faith with the teaching and practice of the apostles has been expressed in
different ways.
   No structural merger is involved, at either the local or national
levels, but clergy of one church would be able to celebrate the Eucharist
and administer the sacraments in congregations of the other
denomination, according to the worship forms and teachings of that
denomination. 

Legislative steps to be taken
   What steps will General Convention take to bring this about? 
   Three resolutions will come before the 72nd General Convention.
The first is to accept "as a matter of verbal content as well as in
principle" the Concordat of Agreement and to agree to make those
legislative, canonical, constitutional, and liturgical changes necessary to
implement the full communion envisioned by the Concordat.
   The second resolution temporarily suspends the "Preface to the
Ordinal" which dates from the 17th century. (The text can be found the
Book of Common Prayer, p. 510, especially the end of the second
paragraph.) This allows the Episcopal Church to immediately recognize
the validity of the orders of all present Lutheran clergy.  
   The third resolution provides that Lutheran pastors and bishops
wishing to serve temporarily in the Episcopal Church would not have to
make any further declaration of faith and obedience beyond the ones they
made at their own ordinations. In other words, their Lutheran ordination
vows would be respected.
   The Lutheran Churchwide Assembly would also vote on several
resolutions. One would be identical to the first resolution voted on by the
Episcopal Church. The others would be specific to the Lutherans and
would be the vehicles for implementing the first resolution.

A new ecumenical model
   The Concordat's concept of full communion without institutional
merger suggests a new model for ecumenical cooperation throughout
Christendom, one stressing a shared Christian identity, teaching, and
sacramental ministry. 
   Under this model, the Lutheran Churchwide Assembly also will be
voting on a proposal for full communion with three U.S. church bodies
in the Reformed tradition: Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of
Christ, and the Reformed Church in America.
   In an April interview, the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding
bishop of the ELCA, said that he expected a majority of that church's
"voting members," as the assembly's delegates are called, to favor the
Concordat but did not know whether the document would receive the
two-thirds majority required for reception by the ELCA.
   "The mind of the church requires more than a majority because it
relates to a constitutional change," he said. "I do favor the two-thirds
majority provision. It is important that we do not receive the Concordat
proposal unless we feel clearly that the church is calling us to go ahead
with it."
   Anderson said there was no clear way to take the pulse of the church
on this issue. The synods chose their voting members to the Churchwide
Assembly last year, and candidates' positions on the Concordat were an
issue in the voting in some synods. 
   "However," Anderson said, "voting members to our Churchwide
Assembly take very seriously the idea that they are not instructed
delegates; rather, they are expected to listen to the discussion and debate
and to vote according to their conscience, so the vote will be influenced
by the debate and discussion in the months leading up to the Churchwide
Assembly and at the Churchwide Assembly itself."

The role of bishops
   The most troublesome issue for those Lutherans who are
uncomfortable with the Concordat is the role of bishops envisioned in the
agreement. In an interview, Anderson said that there are two reasons for
this, one sociological and one theological.
   "The theological reason is that Lutherans tend to focus on the part of
the tradition that relates to the creeds, and the confessions of faith.
Doctrine has been so fundamental that our identity was constituted in our
teaching. Some of us fear that when we start talking about the role of
bishops we are not putting teaching first, but rather adding a structural
requirement to our understanding of what is essential to the church."
   The sociological reason, he said, "is that many Lutherans in this
country came here out of rejection of, and resistance to, state church
structures in Europe, and they have placed their emphasis on `the whole
people of God.'"
   The Concordat proposes that, in the future, consecration of
Episcopal and Lutheran bishops would include participants of both
churches, effectively integrating Lutherans into the historic episcopate.
And Lutherans would agree to elect bishops for life even though they
will continue to elect for specific terms of office in a synod.
   While there does not seem to be any widespread or systematic
opposition to the Concordat within the Episcopal Church, many of those
who do oppose it do so out of a fear that the suspension of the ordinal
and the immediate recognition of Lutheran orders betrays the Episcopal
Church's Anglican commitment to the historic apostolic succession of
bishops. And some object because Lutheran clergy are still allowed to
preside at Episcopal Eucharists even before all Lutheran bishops are part
of the historic episcopate.
   In an introduction to the Concordat, the committee said, "The
conviction that underlies this endeavor is that each of the two churches
has received a gift, not of its own deserving and certainly not for its own
possession, but as the free gift of God's grace .... Both the Anglican
emphasis on the historic episcopate and an ordered ministry, and the
Lutheran emphasis on a full understanding of the doctrine of the faith,
need to be appreciated as gifts, given by God with the intention that the
gift be shared with one another...." 

A growing excitement and vision
   When the first dialogue participants gathered some 30 years ago,
their first goal was to work at understanding each other's positions and
addressing each other's concerns. As the theological and ecclesiastical
barriers to unity were removed, a new vision of what full communion
might mean began to emerge, leading most of the participants to a
genuine excitement and readiness for action. The official dialogues
produced several landmark documents of theological agreement that led
to a decision in 1982 for interim sharing of the Eucharist by the two
churches and a final dialogue that produced the Concordat in 1991.
   This history has been repeated over the past three years as the two
denominations have begun in earnest to discern where the proposed
Concordat of Agreement might lead. The bishops of the two churches, in
particular, emerged from their first-ever combined meeting last October
energized and excited. 
   At that joint meeting, held at a conference center in the Pocono
Mountains, international voices reminded the bishops that the world also
was watching the Concordat discussion. Archbishop of Canterbury
George L. Carey praised the effort "for sending a message to both the
Lutheran and Anglican communions that different ways of living together
are possible." Carey said the experiment showed that "it is possible to go
... from denominational cooperation to a life of common fellowship,
decision-making and oversight."
   Prof. Gunther Gassmann, a German Lutheran who was head of Faith
and Order for the World Council of Churches, told the joint meeting of
bishops that full communion must be expressed "first of all by a new and
mutual awareness of the people in the churches that they belong together.
And when they belong together more visibly than before as members of
the one body of Christ, they will live in a new spiritual relationship of
mutual care and common praise."

--The Rev. Walt Gordon is communications officer for the Diocese of
Minnesota and will be a member of the ENS team at General
Convention.