wfn.org | Full Communion

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Reply-To: wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>

2-September-1998 
98286 
 
    Full  Communion 
    Four U.S. churches recognize their unity in faith and common purpose 
 
    by Theodore Gill 
 
    Thirty-five years of Christian dialogue bore fruit in 1997-98 with the 
adoption of  "A Formula of Agreement" by the largest Lutheran church in the 
U.S.A. and three of North America's churches of the Reformed tradition. 
These four churches are 
 
     * the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 
     * the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
     * the Reformed Church in America 
     * the United Church of Christ. 
 
    Their agreement facilitates and promotes shared worship, transfer of 
ministers among the three churches, and cooperation in ministry ranging 
from local fellowship in congregations and yoked parishes to joint programs 
of national and global mission. 
 
    By their votes in 1997 and 1998, the four participating churches 
established a relationship of "full communion."  This means that they have 
agreed to 
 
    *  recognize each other as churches in which the gospel is rightly 
preached and the sacraments rightly administered according to the will of 
God 
    *  withdraw historic condemnations against each other 
    *  continue to recognize each other's baptism, and authorize and 
encourage sharing of the Lord's Supper 
    *  recognize each other's various ministries and make provisions for 
the orderly exchange of ordained ministers 
    *  begin to establish new channels of consultation and decision-making 
within existing church structures 
    *  pledge themselves to continued dialogue under the principle of 
"mutual affirmation and mutual admonition," building relations of trust and 
Christian love even where there are differences of opinion. 
 
    The distinction between the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of 
Protestant Christianity began in the early 1500s amid the controversies of 
the Reformation in Europe.  The "Lutheran" tradition arose from the 
theology of Martin Luther in Germany, while the "Reformed" tradition 
endorsed a system of belief reflected in writings by John Calvin of Geneva. 
Immigrant groups brought these two sets of teachings to North America, 
where diverse Lutheran and Reformed denominations arose.  In 1962, the 
Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches 
jointly invited American churches to enter a dialogue aimed at achieving 
unity in the gospel.  "A Formula of Agreement" came as a result of that 
effort. 
 
    As the four churches celebrate their unity in Christ, some 
administrative details remain to be explored at the national and regional 
levels.  Meanwhile, local churches are encouraged to seek out Reformed and 
Lutheran neighbors and plan occasions when people from both traditions can 
enjoy common worship, Bible study, fellowship meals, joint mission projects 
and as many other events as the imagination allows.  In the end, the 
significance of Lutheran-Reformed full communion will depend on what 
congregations make of it. 
 
A Brief History of the Churches 
[Historical information gathered from the "Yearbook of American & Canadian 
Churches 1998"] 
 
            Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 
 
    The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is, through its 
predecessors, the oldest of the major U.S. Lutheran churches.  In the 
mid-17th century, a Dutch Lutheran congregation was formed in New Amsterdam 
(now New York).  Other early congregations were begun by German and 
Scandinavian immigrants to Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and the 
Carolinas. 
 
    The first Lutheran association of congregations, the Pennsylvania 
Ministerium, was organized in 1748 under Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. 
Numerous Lutheran organizations were formed, and institutional mergers took 
place, as immigration continued and the United States grew. In the spring 
of 1987, in Columbus, Ohio, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was 
formed, bringing together the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church 
in America and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.  The 1996 
inclusive membership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was 
5,180,910.  National offices of the church are located in Chicago, 
Illinois. 
 
                       Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
 
    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) traces its history to 
seventeenth-century congregations along the Atlantic coast and to the first 
presbytery in North America, organized in Philadelphia in 1706.  Another 
major branch of the family, the United Presbyterian Church in North America 
(UPCNA), came into being with the 1858 merger of the Associate Reformed 
Presbyterian Church and the Associate Presbyterian Church.  Strongly 
ecumenical in outlook, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the result of at 
least ten such mergers over the past 250 years. 
 
    A remarkable division marred the unity of the church in 1861, when the 
advent of the Civil War caused Southern Presbyterians to withdraw from the 
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and organize their own General Assembly. 
After 122 years of separated existence, the Northern and Southern General 
Assemblies were reunited in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 10, 1983.  The 
inclusive membership of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1996 was 
3,637,375.  National offices of the church are located in Louisville, 
Kentucky. 
 
                     Reformed Church in America 
 
    The Reformed Church in America was established in 1628 by the earliest 
settlers of New Amsterdam (now New York).  Until 1867 it was known as the 
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.  Its geographical and demographic base 
broadened in the 19th century through the immigration of Reformed Dutch and 
German settlers in the Midwestern United States.  Today, the church spans 
the United States and Canada. 
 
    The Reformed Church in America is the oldest Protestant denomination 
with a continuous ministry in North America.  Although this church has 
worked in close cooperation with others, it has never entered into a merger 
with any other denomination.  The 1996 inclusive membership of the Reformed 
Church in America was 304,113.  National offices of the church are located 
in New York City. 
 
                      United Church of Christ 
 
    The creation of the United Church of Christ in 1957 at a meeting in 
Cleveland, Ohio, brought together four unique strands of Protestant 
tradition:  1) Congregational churches traced their history to English 
colonies of the 16th and 17th centuries;  2) Christian churches were part 
of an 18th-century American restorationist movement that united with the 
Congregationalists in 1931;  3) The German Reformed Church drew insights 
from Luther and Calvin, and was founded on the theological principles of 
the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563; 4) The German Evangelical Synod, stemming 
from an 1817 union of Lutheran and Reformed parishes in Prussia, merged 
with the German Reformed Church in 1936 to form the Evangelical and 
Reformed, or the "E & R," Church. 
 
    Like its three partners in "A Formula of Agreement," the United Church 
of Christ is committed to ecumenical mission. The 1996 inclusive membership 
of the United Church of Christ was 1,452,565.  National offices of the 
church are located in Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
     All four churches are sponsors of such relief ministries as Church 
World Service and Witness, and all four are members of the World Council of 
Churches and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 
The combined 1996 inclusive membership of the four churches was 10,574,963. 
 
(Theodore Gill is the assistant director of the Department of Governing 
Body, Ecumenical and Agency Relations of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to wfn-news-request@wfn.org