wfn.org | Formula of Agreement Passes ELCA Assembly

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

20-August-1997 
97326 
 
    Formula of Agreement Passes ELCA Assembly, 
    Concordat With Episcopal Church Fails 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
PHILADELPHIA--Any joy about passage of an agreement opening the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to "full communion" with three Reformed 
denominations -- including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- was 
diminished in ecumenical circles here by the demise of a similar proposal 
between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church in the United States. 
 
    The Reformed agreement between the ELCA, the PC(USA), the Reformed 
Church in America (RCA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC) -- called A 
Formula of Agreement -- was easily passed by 81 percent of the 1,035 voting 
members at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.  A similar agreement with the 
Episcopal Church -- known as the Concordat -- fell six votes short of the 
necessary two-thirds majority in what appeared to be a rejection of  the 
"historic episcopate" (in which the bishop's authority to ordain is traced 
directly back to the early church and is granted for a lifetime). 
 
    Despite moves to reconsider the Concordat vote the next day, members 
solidly voted not to do so, adopting instead resolutions that commit the 
ELCA to more teaching and dialogue about possible avenues for full 
communion with the Episcopal Church in 1999. 
 
    Amendments to ecumenical statements to incorporate the Formula's 
provisions within the PC(USA) constitution are now under consideration by 
the denomination's presbyteries.  Passage by a majority of the presbyteries 
would be the last step in this four-way agreement to officially bring the 
ELCA into a relationship with the already related Reformed churches. Such 
ties permit clergy interchangeability and shared communion. The agreement 
also dispenses with 16th-century condemnations of Calvinist doctrine by the 
early Lutheran church. 
 
     "The emotional, spiritual response to the Reformed vote was muted by 
the Episcopal vote.  The celebration that ought to have happened here 
probably will not happen, regrettably," said the Rev. Eugene Turner, the 
Office of the General Assembly's ecumenical officer, just after the voting. 
 
    "But the joy is," he continued, "we've established full communion with 
the ELCA. ... And that's a major accomplishment in the ecumenical search 
for Christian unity." 
 
    That kind of mollified stance was offered, too, by the Rev. George 
Anderson, the ELCA's presiding bishop, who moderated the nearly five-day 
debate on the two ecumenical agreements.  Citing high emotion among the 66 
percent of the voting members whose hope for deeper ties with the Episcopal 
church died by six votes, he told reporters, "Many people, including me, 
had great hopes that we could accomplish [the Reformed and Episcopal 
agreements] in this same meeting at the same time.  That would be a great 
symbol. ... 
 
    "But we have taken an historic step to heal one of the breaches ... 
between the Lutheran tradition and the Calvinist," he said. 
 
    Official conversations to repair that nearly 450-year breach have been 
under way for 32 years between representatives of the Reformed and Lutheran 
churches in the United States, culminating -- despite a failed attempt at 
more unity in 1984 -- in the paper "A Common Calling," a study of the 
doctrinal differences between the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, 
including the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, Christology, 
predestination and the centuries-old condemnations.  But the paper proposes 
that these differences are the basis for ongoing theological work, not 
division -- what the document calls "mutual affirmation and admonition." 
 
    "We're giving up the polemic," said Pacific Lutheran Seminary president 
Timothy F. Lull, co- editor of  "A Common Calling" and a member of the 
dialogue team.  "We're saying we've not been fair to each other in the past 
 ... [and that] it is time not to be talking about each other's positions 
but [to be] in conversation with each other." 
 
    That line of thought was reflected in the floor debate in which 
proponents of the Reformed agreement, such as Pastor Paul Hanson of 
Brookings, S.D., insisted that churches born in the Reformation have been 
separated too long. "We understand our differences.  But even so, we can 
walk forward together. ...  We are extending our hands in partnership with 
other Reformed churches. ... We're saying, `We will walk with you, pray 
with you, be at table with you.' 
 
    "And we cannot bypass this in hopes of a better document along the 
way," he said, answering calls to dabble with the document's language, 
which already had been approved by the other churches.  "It is appropriate 
to move forward." 
 
    That stance was countered by uneasiness among some Lutherans about how 
Calvinist Christians understand the elements at the Lord's Table, exactly 
how Christ is present.   There was also worry about the tendency in 
Reformed churches to focus on the need for continual reformation of the 
church, as Lutherans expressed more comfort with the 16th-century creeds as 
sufficient to regulate the church's life.  Anxiety was expressed, too, 
about the congregational nature of UCC governance -- and about how possible 
it is to hold individual congregations accountable to the Formula of 
Agreement. 
 
      Opposition to the "historic episcopate" as inherently un-Lutheran -- 
a protocol mandated within the Concordat to ordain even Lutheran pastors -- 
was more visceral, as was consideration of ordination to three offices. 
For despite the existence of 65 bishops within the U.S. Lutheran church, 
the office of pastor is the denomination's only ordainable ministry. 
Further, Lutheran pastors are charged with the responsibility of ordaining 
other pastors. 
 
    Stressing that decades of dialogue have gone into the Concordat -- and 
the fact that bishops  have been slowly introduced into the life of the 
U.S. Lutheran church during the past 25 years -- the denomination's 
director of ecumenical affairs, the Rev. Daniel Martensen, said Lutherans 
will be struggling with "serious divisions" within the ELCA that emerged in 
this Episcopal-Lutheran debate. 
 
    Coalitions within the ELCA disagree about ecumenical priorities.  Some 
advocate heavily for more outreach to the Roman Catholic and Orthodox 
churches, while others distrust such a move, expressing uneasiness with any 
hierarchical structure that may be perceived as shifting power from the 
congregation. 
 
      He said the ELCA's ecumenical endeavors were deliberately moving 
along multiple fronts to draw the new denomination into agreements that 
were not bound to one tradition and that there was a strong move among some 
at this Churchwide Assembly to approve both the Reformed and Episcopal 
agreements or neither.  "I feel sadness," said Martensen, "that our church, 
the ELCA, at the turn of the millennium, cannot demonstrate the capability 
of moving from decades of dialogue and talk to concrete action." 
 
    Concordat co-chair the Rt. Rev. Edward Jones of the Episcopal Church 
told reporters he was "disappointed" and "surprised" by the vote, since 
Episcopalians had met in this same Philadelphia convention hall last month 
to approve the Concordat by a 99 percent margin. 
 
    "It's premature to say it is all over.  It's premature to dismiss 
bilateral dialogue," he said, adding that he was unclear, however, how this 
vote would affect the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), a proposal by 
nine churches -- including the Episcopal Church -- to enter into some 
aspects of full communion with each other. 
 
    COCU's progress has already been hampered by bishop language.  Further 
progress was stalled in COCU last year when PC(USA) presbyteries rejected 
the word "bishop" for an administrative office in the proposed structure, 
whether the office was occupied by one individual or by a committee. 
 
    Looking back on past rejection of the Lutheran-Reformed agreement, RCA 
associate for ecumenical relations the Rev. Douglas Fromm said that 
weaknesses in ecumenical documents often need readdressing.  Speaking both 
to reporters and to his ecumenical colleagues -- Lutheran, Episcopal and 
Reformed -- at the press conference, he reminded those present that 
Reformed representatives felt in 1984, when an earlier agreement was 
rejected by the Lutheran church, the sadness Lutheran and Episcopal 
ecumenical proponents feel now. 
 
    "It's a very mixed moment [for Reformed representatives]," said Fromm. 
 
    The Rev. John Thomas, the UCC's ecumenical officer,  agreed.  "We're 
feeling combined gratitude and grief, a sense of joy and sorrow," he said. 
 
    The Churchwide Assembly for the 5.2 million-member ELCA was under way 
Aug. 14-20.  At press time, the Assembly was considering a third ecumenical 
document insisting that the different understandings of justification -- or 
worthiness of salvation -- held by the Lutherans and the Roman Catholic 
Church are not church dividing.  Justification was the central issue in the 
split between reformer Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church.  The 
document is under consideration now by the Vatican and the 122 member 
communities of the Lutheran World Federation, which is headquartered in 
Geneva. 

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