wfn.org | Lutherans and Episcopalians appoint teams to build better understanding

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

February 10, 1998
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
jsolheim@dfms.org

98-2081
Lutherans and Episcopalians appoint teams 
to build better understanding 
	(ENS) The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church have 
appointed teams to explore avenues for better understanding in the wake of last summer's 
failure to approve a Concordat of Agreement establishing full communion.
	The ELCA's Churchwide Assembly fell six votes short of the required two-thirds 
majority necessary to approve full communion. Subsequent resolutions called for an 
expansion of "education opportunities" in the church dealing with the doctrine, creeds 
and polity of the two churches.
	"The task of the committee is to provide opportunities for members of the 
faculties of ELCA colleges and seminaries, the Conference of Bishops, clergy and laity to 
communicate the history, theology and ecclesiology of both the Episcopal Church and the 
ELCA," said Dr. Darlis Swan of the ELCA's Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
	The Rev. David Perry, ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Church, said that he 
and Midge Roof, president of the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, would work 
with the Lutherans. "Our intent is not to understand the Concordat itself but to better 
understand each other, to explore the culture and ethos of each church." That will include 
dealing with such crucial issues as the role of not only bishops and the episcopate but also 
the role of laity. 
	"The real goal," Perry added, "is to help people talk with each other, in the widest 
possible variety of settings. That might include workshops, joint meetings at the local 
level, and parishes working together. Undergirding everything will be our common 
understanding of baptism."
	Perry said that he agreed with a proposal by the Lutherans to develop videotapes 
that could be used at ELCA Synod assemblies this spring and one for congregations. At a 
mid-January meeting at Lutheran headquarters in Chicago, the Rev. Clarence Harms, an 
ELCA pastor in Wisconsin, said that video resources "can be effective in congregations" 
but he expressed the hope that "education will take place through different means of 
communication."
	"I'm still urging Episcopalians to take a Lutheran to lunch-or even dinner," 
Perry said in emphasizing the importance of conversation on a personal level. He is still 
hopeful that the two churches can "find a clear, simple way to express our hopes for the 
mission possibilities of full communion."
	The six-member Lutheran-Episcopal drafting team met for the first of four 
working sessions in Chicago January 14-15 and addressed areas of consensus. Members 
began to outline the content of a rationale for the new proposal for full communion and 
set a goal of having a text ready to circulate by Easter.

--Ann Hafften and Jim Solheim