wfn.org | Lutherans and Episcopalians near full communion

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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99-075
Lutherans choosing sides as vote nears on full communion 
with Episcopalians

by James Solheim

(ENS) As members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
America (ELCA) move towards a vote this summer on a proposal for 
full communion with the Episcopal Church, the tension is 
increasing and Lutherans are choosing sides.

As the debate over the latest proposal for a concordat 
between the two churches intensifies, it has divided the 
faculties of the ELCA seminaries. "The reasons to approve the 
document are numerous, and to our thinking outweigh reasons for 
rejection," said the faculty of the Lutheran Theological Southern 
Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina, in endorsing "Called to 
Common Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the 
Concordat of Agreement," or CCM for short.

On the other hand, the faculty at Trinity Lutheran 
Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, said that it was "not of one mind 
about this proposal," expressing the hope that "even our 
disagreements can serve to facilitate constructive discussion of 
the proposal" when it comes before the Churchwide Assembly in 
August in Denver.

Dialogues between the churches produced a Concordat of 
Agreement in 1991 that was accepted by the Episcopal Church's 
1997 General Convention but fell six votes short of a two-thirds 
majority required by the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly. The CCM is a 
rewrite, clarifying many of the objections and misunderstandings 
in the original concordat.

"The visible unity of the church is vital to God's 
mission that the world believe," said the Rev. Dennis A. 
Anderson, president of Trinity, in a personal statement. "We are 
not free to pass by, ignore, neglect or fail to take action that 
promotes the unity of the church of Jesus Christ, unless such 
action is in fact contrary to the Gospel."

In addressing the most contentious issue in the search 
for full communion, Anderson added, "We are free. to accept the 
historic episcopate as a human but not a divine tradition."

No fear of changes

Southern Seminary's statement outlined four reasons 
for its support of CCM: 

*The Lutheran Confessions indicate a desire to hold on 
to the historic episcopate;

*Acceptance of the historic episcopate is 
consistent with Martin Luther's understanding of evangelical 
freedom;

*CCM makes clear distinctions between the 
importance of the Gospel in word and sacrament as the foundation 
of church unity, and the historic episcopate as an expression of 
church unity; and

*Approval of CCM would help the mission of the 
church.

Similar arguments were advanced recently when the 
Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia strongly encouraged adoption of 
CCM, adding in a unanimous statement that faculty members 
recognized that "both churches may need to accommodate certain 
aspects of their organizational life in order to welcome fully 
their brothers and sisters in the other church--and to be 
welcomed by them. We do not fear these changes," the statement 
said. "The Gospel, as witnessed to in the Lutheran Confessions 
and in our churches, remains pure and strong even when we change 
or abandon cherished practices and traditions."

Opponents well-organized
Opponents of CCM, however, are well organized and 
include some of the church's major leaders, past and present.

For the second time, a mid-May meeting in Mahtomedi, 
Minnesota, drew some strong voices. Dr. Randall Balmer, professor 
of American religion at Columbia University in New York, said in 
his opening address to the conference that the ecumenical 
movement has been "both a mistake and a failure," largely because 
it has lost touch with the grassroots in its eagerness to 
minimize differences. "The ecumenical movement is an idea whose 
time has gone," he said.

While CCM purports to be about mission, it "says 
virtually nothing substantive about mission," charged Dr. Cynthia 
Jurisson, who teaches American church history at the Lutheran 
School of Theology in Chicago. She argued that both churches, 
marked by different religious subcultures and forms of 
governance, can coexist peacefully without CCM. "Our differences 
can define us but need not divide us," she said.

Prof. Gordon Huffman, Jr. of Trinity Seminary in Ohio 
agreed, suggesting that both churches can work together in many 
ways now, without CCM and without sharing the historic 
episcopate. And he charged that some people have been "threatened 
and vilified" for opposing CCM, without identifying anyone.

Prof. Michael Rogness of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, 
a hotbed of resistance to CCM, said that attempts by ELCA bishops 
to clarify their understanding of the proposal is "symptomatic of 
the problem." He is convinced that CCM is "way out of tune with 
the way the world is running. Frankly, I'm tired of it and I wish 
the church would get back to proclaiming the Gospel."

A resolution of the first Mahtomedi Conference, 
calling on the ELCA to reject CCM because of the historic 
episcopate, has been introduced at a number of synod assemblies, 
with varying results. Participants at the May meeting outlined 
specific strategies for dealing with the CCM at the synod and 
national level.

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's 
Office of News and Information. This story is based on reports 
from the ELCA news office by Frank Imhoff and John Brooks.