wfn.org | Presbyteries Ratify Full Communion with Lutherans

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

12-March-1998 
98088 
 
    Presbyteries Ratify Full Communion with Lutherans 
 
    by Frank Imhoff 
    Evangelical Lutheran Church in America News Service 
 
CHICAGO-Eighty-seven presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have 
voted to ratify an agreement declaring "full communion" between the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and three churches of the 
Reformed tradition. 
 
    In addition to the ELCA and the PC(USA), the agreement includes the 
Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC). 
The PC(USA) was already in full communion with the UCC and the RCA. 
 
    An affirmative vote by a majority of the 173 presbyteries was the final 
hurdle needed to be crossed before the relationship was official. 
 
    After 36 years of dialogues, a festival worship service at Chicago's 
Rockefeller Chapel on Oct. 4 will formally declare the churches in full 
communion.  Full communion is not a plan to merge; it commits the churches 
to sharing in their mission to work locally and internationally and to 
develop procedures whereby clergy in one church body may serve as pastor in 
a church of another church body. 
 
    Assemblies of the four denominations approved "A Formula of Agreement," 
a proposal for full communion, in 1997. 
 
    Presbyterian approval required ratification by a majority of the 
church's presbyteries on two amendments to the church's "Book of Order." 
 
    Amendment M added relationships of "full communion with those churches 
so recognized by ecumenical agreements approved by the General Assembly" to 
a section of the governing documents on "Relationships with Other 
Denominations."  A section on "Church Union" now concludes with: "Governing 
bodies are encouraged and permitted to discover and engage in opportunities 
to minister together in mutual affirmation and admonition with churches 
with whom the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in full communion." 
 
    Amendment N asked if the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should approve 
and implement the proposal for full communion outlined in "A Formula for 
Agreement." 
 
    The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America was the first body 
to approve the agreement, June 18, 1997, in Milwaukee.  A voice vote of the 
250 delegates recorded only a few "no" votes. 
 
    That synod also passed a resolution clarifying that the three Reformed 
churches were already in "full table and pulpit fellowship," a relationship 
similar to full communion, "by virtue of Reformed polity and the fellowship 
shared through membership in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches." 
 
    The 209th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted 
489 to 38 in favor of full communion last June 19 in Syracuse, N.Y.  That 
vote set the stage for ratification of the proposal by the church's 
presbyteries. 
 
    The General Synod of the United Church of Christ invited the ELCA into 
full communion July 5 in Columbus, Ohio.  About 10 of the 700 delegates 
voted in opposition. 
 
    The ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted 839 to 193 in favor of the proposal 
on Aug. 18.  A two-thirds majority was needed for passage, and 81.3 percent 
of the voting members approved the relationship. 
 
    Church Memberships 
 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America        5,200,000 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)                  2,700,000 
United Church of Christ                       1,500,000 
Reformed Church in America                      300,000 

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