wfn.org | Episcopalians and Lutherans around the nation celebrate full communion

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jhames@dfms.org

2001-14

Episcopalians and Lutherans around the nation celebrate full communion 

by Episcopal Life staff

In cities, towns and hamlets from New York to Los Angeles, Episcopalians and Lutherans 
gathered in worship to celebrate the agreement that brought full communion to the two 
denominations, effective January 1. In some cases, observances preceded the national 
celebration on Epiphany at Washington National Cathedral on January 6.

In California's San Gabriel Valley, congregations ushered in the New Year with a December 
31 service that included a march by clergy and hundreds of worshipers from the Episcopal 
parish of St. Edmund's in San Marino to the Lutheran church in San Gabriel for a joint 
celebration of the Eucharist.

Bishop Frederick H. Borsch of the Diocese of Los Angeles looked out over the standing-room-
only crowd and thanked the choir members from Trinity Lutheran Church for wearing red. 
"Otherwise, it's very difficult to tell who's a Lutheran and who's an Episcopalian," he 
joked.

Making history

At Seal Beach, California, south of Los Angeles, Lutherans and Episcopalians at a joint 
service on December 31 applauded as the coadjutor bishop of the diocese, Jon Bruno, hugged 
his Lutheran counterpart and declared, "I think we made history!"

He told the congregation that the agreement, Called to Common Mission, is more than two 
denominations setting aside their differences to stand together. "It's being part of one 
another," he said. "We have ways in which to join that will make us stronger."

"I wouldn't have missed this for the world," said Mary Mizer, who attends St. Wilfred's 
Episcopal Church in nearby Huntington Beach. She was a deputy at last year's General 
Convention that approved the agreement.

"When it actually happened, it was an emotional sense of history," she said. "The more 
people join hands, the more of God's work we can do. The is a wonderful thing."

Diocesan-wide celebrations are planned in San Francisco and Sacramento, where bishops in 
the Dioceses of California and Northern California, will join with Lutheran bishops to mark 
the new relationship. Episcopal-Lutheran campus ministries will benefit from the offering 
at the observance in Sacramento on February 2.  The San Francisco service will take place 
at Grace Cathedral on February 25.

Common witness

In some communities were celebrations are planned, there has been little history of joint 
work. In others, Episcopalians and Lutherans have developed a relationship through years of 
cooperation.

In Charleston, South Carolina, for example, St. Michael's Episcopal Church and St. John's 
Lutheran Church have been sharing Thanksgiving services for years. The silver chalices that 
St. John's uses for its Communion are gifts from St. Michael's, thanking the Lutherans for 
helping St. Michael's rebuild after the Great Earthquake of 1886. 

Now, St. John's pastor says, his church may consider an Episcopalian as it reviews 
applicants for a new associate pastor for education and youth ministry. "This agreement 
says to us to discover ways to turn some of this relationship that's already in existence 
into some real ministry," said senior pastor, the Rev. Edward L. Counts.

In Savannah, Georgia, the Rev. Leslie Hague, assistant rector at St. Peter's Episcopal 
Church, participated January 7 in a service between her parish and neighboring Messiah 
Lutheran Church. 

"We're thanking God where he has brought us," she said.  "It is a very important agreement 
and a real step in our witness to the world of the unity of Christ."

Fitting foundation

On January 14, at St. James Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, Bishop Roger White and Lutheran 
Bishop Peter Rogness of the ELCA's Greater Milwaukee Synod presided over a service that 
renewed baptismal vows to and concelebrated the Eucharist.

The two bishops have had a close relationship for years and congregations from both 
denominations are already cooperating in various ways. In rural areas, there is potential 
for further cooperation, where small congregations and a shortage of clergy could encourage 
clergy sharing or joint missions.

At the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Bishop Richard F. Grein will be 
celebrant and Bishop Stephen Bowman of the ELCA Metropolitan Synod will preach as the 
city's Episcopalians and Lutherans commemorate the historic agreement on February 3. The 
date was chosen because it is the feast of St. Anskar of Scandinavia, "a missionary to 
Denmark and Sweden in the middle of the 800s, a teacher known for reaching out to new 
peoples," said Grein. "It is a fitting day for this wonderful event."

"The Eucharist will bring Episcopalians and Lutherans together to provide a fitting 
foundation for the exploration of closer dialogue and relationship with our Lutheran 
friends and to celebrate the beginning of our life in full communion," said Coadjutor 
Bishop Mark Sisk.