wfn.org | Meeting debates Lutheran/Episcopalian full communion

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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99-044
Boston conference debates full communion between Lutherans and
Episcopalians
by Tracy Sukraw
(ENS) It might be a bold step for ecumenism, but full communion between
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal
Church is also a natural development, according to speakers at a March
23 program at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

With voting delegates to the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly preparing to
consider a revised proposal for full communion this August, the program
was a timely occasion for Lutherans and Episcopalians to hear about and
discuss together the process that could lead to a whole new relationship
between their churches. 

"If we really are agreed on the essentials of the Christian faith, if we
have full interchangeability of ordained ministries, if we have a full
sharing of the Eucharist, if our leaders understand and recognize in
each other sufficiently compatible doctrinal terms so that we trust one
another theologically and are confident in working together-only then
will full communion be given the momentum to carry out common mission,"
Bishop Christopher Epting of the Diocese of Iowa told the assembly of
about 50 Lutherans and Episcopalians from around New England.  Epting
chaired the Episcopal Church's participation on the Lutheran-Episcopal
team responsible for drafting the proposal, titled "Called to Common
Mission" (CCM).

"It is often said, why can't we do a lot of this now?  Well, we can.
The point is, we haven't, historically.  So full communion will give us
the impetus to do some of the things that we probably already do
together," Epting said.

Sponsored by the congregational studies and Anglican, global and
ecumenical studies offices at Episcopal Divinity School, the program
also featured the Rev. Dr. Don S. Armentrout, an ELCA pastor and
associate dean and church history professor at the School of Theology at
the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee; retired Church of
Sweden bishop Krister Stendahl, who is a former dean and professor
emeritus at Harvard Divinity School; and the Rev. Jane S. Gould, the
Episcopal chaplain at the Lutheran-Episcopal Ministry at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).
A move for unity
Decades of Lutheran-Episcopal dialogues resulted in a 1991 proposal for
full communion called the Concordat of Agreement.  The 1997 General
Convention of the Episcopal Church overwhelmingly approved the
Concordat, but the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly narrowly defeated it that
same year, asking for a revision that would address reservations
expressed by Lutherans.  

Much of the ELCA opposition was and remains focused on acceptance of the
historic episcopate, a succession of bishops dating back to the earliest
days of the Christian church.  The Episcopal Church has maintained it,
but most Lutheran churches outside of Scandinavia did not.  

"In the history of the church there has been a lack of reconciliation at
the level of the episcopate," Armentrout said, reminding the gathering
in his lively presentation that Lutheran churches did not dispense with
the historic episcopate on theological grounds, but did so because of
the practical consequences of the Reformation.  "You cannot go through
Luther and find a diatribe against the episcopate.  You cannot find it
in the Lutheran confessions.  It's not there.  We simply in the 16th
century dropped the historic episcopate because the majority of bishops
did not come into the Lutheran movement.  They remained as Roman
Catholics.  What is being asked of us, as I understand it, now, is to be
reincorporated into the historic episcopate.  I would argue for the
historic episcopate not on the basis of apostolicity, but on the basis
of catholicity.  I would argue that to be reincorporated into that
historic episcopate is a move in the right direction for unity,"
Armentrout said.

Stendahl urged Lutherans to seek the means for reconciling their
doctrine with episcopal polity in article seven of the Augsburg
Confession-the 1530 Lutheran confession of faith.  "If there is basic
agreement on the preaching of the word and the administration of the
sacraments, then all the rest is secondary, not that important," he
said.  "We have nothing against the fact that the Episcopalians think
that [the historic episcopate] is more important than we do.  Why should
we?  That would be a kind of tit-for-tat, secularization of theology.
We need to liberate our Lutheran freedom according to the Augsburg
Confession," he said.  "It is enormously important that the episkope not
be used as an excuse for lack of courage," he said.

Epting said that CCM "really continues to hold up those areas where we
have yet to find some agreement in trying to find a way forward."  Among
the changes found in it is a provision that the ELCA may be brought into
the historic episcopate through other Lutheran bodies of the world, such
as the Church of Sweden, which have maintained it, as well as the
Episcopal Church. 

CCM also acknowledges that the succession of bishops is only one way
through which the church's apostolic succession is expressed.  "One of
the great breakthroughs in this dialogue has been speaking of the
apostolic succession in a much broader sense.  The apostolic succession
is much broader than simply the historic episcopate and is guarded by,
in addition to the episcopate, the apostolic Scriptures, the ancient
creeds, the celebration of the sacraments," Epting said.
Emphasis on common mission
In addition to the fact that it is shorter and uses more accessible
language than did the Concordat, other changes include a more direct
emphasis on common mission, as well as the ministry of all who are
baptized. And it does not require the ordination of deacons, since the
threefold ordained ministry of bishops, priests and deacons is not
present in the ELCA as it is in the Episcopal Church.

"The initial take that we [on the drafting team] had when the document
went out was that it is a good document, that it was improved, that it
would probably pass and perhaps pass very strongly," Epting said. "Our
desire certainly would be that when it goes to the Churchwide Assembly
that it would pass by 85 percent or more. Sixty-seven percent would
probably not be good. We don't want to leave behind internal chaos as a
result of this movement," he said.  

"One reason why the Episcopal Church has not had wide distribution of
this document yet is because it is kind of a moving target.  Until the
Churchwide Assembly votes, we won't know exactly what we have to do on
our side in 2000," he said, referring to next year's General Convention
of the Episcopal Church, where a proposal approved by the ELCA would be
considered.  "There is Lutheran opposition, and I have to recognize that
I live in the peak of a lot of that opposition in the upper Midwest.  I
also recognize that there is a good bit of support among Lutherans
across the country.  It's hard to get a reading as to where the votes
are going to fall, and I'm not sure anyone would be able to predict that
at this point.  I'm still hopeful," he said.
Chaplaincy provides model
Before program participants gathered for small group discussions,
Chaplain Jane Gould offered what she called the "grassroots perspective"
of M.I.T.'s 26-year-old Lutheran-Episcopal Ministry, or L.E.M.  

"L.E.M. is a model for sustained life together, abiding together in
respectful, sometimes rocky, relationship.  L.E.M. is a model for full
communion," she said.  The ministry, which she staffs along with an ELCA
chaplain, offers joint worship, fellowship meals, Bible study and
mission project opportunities for an international group of 20 to 30
M.I.T. students each week.  

"In addition to our formal study, I think the important thing is the
informal education, where the students really have to be able to teach
their own tradition to others, which means they really need to be able
to own and claim their own tradition.  ...The questions that get asked
and the conversations that we have come out of being in sustained,
committed relationship."  She quoted paragraph 14 of CCM, which calls on
the people of both churches "to receive and share this relationship as
they grow together in full communion."

"It seems to me that that's the commitment we have at M.I.T.," Gould
said.

With such collaborative ministries between Lutherans and Episcopalians
already going on, she said, some wonder why an official process for full
communion is necessary. One reason is that there are not many examples
of where Lutherans and Episcopalians are working in a close
relationship. "If we want to incarnate unity in Christ, that isn't good
enough. And my sense is that parishes-as significantly more conservative
entities than chaplaincies and certainly places that are less likely to
engage in innovation-need an institutional push to engage in this kind
of work. I'd also say that we desperately need institutional
coordination for communication and collaboration that is called for in
CCM," she added.
-Tracy J. Sukraw is editor of The Episcopal Times, the newspaper for the
Diocese of Massachusetts.