wfn.org | Lutherans and Episcopalians inaugurate full communion

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http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens
jsolheim@dfms.org

2001-3

Lutherans and Episcopalians inaugurate full communion in Epiphany Service at 
National Cathedral

by James E. Solheim

     (ENS) In a long, complex, and glorious Epiphany service that blended 
powerful elements from both Anglican and Lutheran traditions, the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) celebrated a 
new relationship of full communion at Washington's National Cathedral on January 
6. As the world-famous St. Olaf Choir offered a stunning musical introduction to 
the event, several processions involving almost a thousand participants moved 
into place. The processions included representatives from all 65 ELCA synods and 
nearly three-quarters of the Episcopal dioceses in the United States, as well as 
church officers and staff members, and ecumenical and international guests.

     The voices of the 3,500-member congregation swelled in the opening hymn as 
liturgical leaders moved to a baptismal font in the center of the church. "God is 
here, as we your people meet to offer praise and prayer, may we find in fuller 
measure what it is in Christ we share," they sang. "Lord of all, of church and 
kingdom, in an age of change and doubt, keep us faithful to the gospel, help us 
to work your purpose out."

     Drawing on a sacrament that stands at the core of the theology of both 
churches, members of the congregation renewed their baptismal vows and received 
in response a generous sprinkling of water from the huge font "as a sign and 
reminder of our baptism into the risen life of the Risen Christ."

The ground of communion

     In his sermon, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold quoted 
16th century reformer Martin Luther, who said that, in the communion of saints 
formed by baptism, "we are all brothers and sisters so closely united that a 
closer relationship cannot be conceived, no other society is so deeply rooted, so 
closely knit."

     "How right it is that, as we come together to affirm our call to common 
mission as two households of faith within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic 
Church, we do so within the context of Eucharist," Griswold said, because in that 
sacrament "all self-seeking love is rooted out," according to Luther. It has been 
too easy for some to "emphasize our singularities in order to define ourselves 
over against one another, thereby feeding our ecclesiastical self-love."

     On this occasion, Griswold added, "the Eucharist in conjunction with the 
renewal of our baptismal identity is not just an adjunct-an appropriate 
ceremonial addition to our call to common mission-but rather is the ground of the 
communion we share. The Eucharist both summons us and sustains us as we face the 
future in all its challenge and complexity as well as its possibility."

     Griswold ended his sermon by expressing his hope and prayer that full 
communion "will lead to ever-widening and deepening relationships of shared life 
and mission with other churches of the Reformation, as well as the Church of Rome 
and the churches of the East. In the meantime, "we must leave home and follow the 
star. To be sure there is room in our saddlebags for the Augsburg Confession and 
the Book of Common Prayer, but a great deal will have to be left behind-
particularly attitudes and self-perceptions which keep us from joyfully welcoming 
one another as brothers and sisters in the communion of the Holy Spirit, and from 
opening ourselves to the gifts of grace and truth to be found in one another's 
church."

     The two churches must leave room for some surprises along the way, urged 
Griswold. "The divine imagination exceeds all our efforts to comprehend and 
contain it, and what use God will ultimately make of our ecclesiastical 
arrangements or where they will take us. or require of us in the days ahead, may 
surprise us all."

     After prayers spoken in several languages and led by those who represented 
the wide diversity of both churches, ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson 
presided at the Eucharist.

A stage along the journey

     In a news conference held the day before the service, Griswold and Anderson 
cautioned that the agreement is only a step in a much longer process. "Entering 
into full communion is a stage along the way that has already been established," 
said Griswold, noting that "a great deal has been done between our two churches 
both nationally and locally," and that the Epiphany liturgy "simply marks a stage 
in a relationship that has already begun, the formal liturgical recognition and 
beginning of a long process of growing together, sharing together, and trying to 
respond out of our two traditions together to God's call to minister to a broken 
world."

     Anderson admitted that there continues to be opposition to full communion 
with ECUSA among some Lutherans, and "that is one of the things that I'm hoping 
we can address, first by demonstrating that the process of full communion and 
what it means will not bring some of the fearful consequences that some of our 
folks are assuming, and secondly, that we can work with them to try to make this 
relationship one that they also will see as God-pleasing, and ultimately for the 
good of the whole church of Christ."

     "Communion is an organic relationship," Griswold remarked. "It's not a 
document, nor is it a set of legislative criteria, although documents and 
legislative criteria do enter into it along the way. My hope and prayer would be 
that any fears or anxieties that presently exist in either of our communities 
would be resolved over time through the living of the relationship."

     Griswold drew an analogy with the experience of the Episcopal Church 
concerning the ordination of women. "Over time and through the actual experience 
of the ministry of ordained women, a great deal of the anxiety simply faded 
away," he observed, "not because anyone was argued out of something, but we 
simply lived into a new consciousness. I think that's really the way we need to 
look at this relationship."

     Asked if a full-scale merger was ever possible in the future between the two 
denominations, Griswold replied, "What remains to happen in the future, I would 
not begin to anticipate. All I know is that God is a God of surprises, and often 
our tidy little plans get smashed and transformed in ways well past our 
imagining." It helps, he said, that "we are both liturgical traditions, which 
means that we share a heritage that is quite similar. Therefore our capacity to 
find ourselves at home in one another's liturgies is almost immediate. Some of 
the ways in which we structure the internal life of the church offer some 
divergence, and that's precisely what Called to Common Mission seeks to provide 
for and in some ways overcome as we look to the future."

     The agreement commits both churches to share mission strategy wherever 
possible and permits the interchangeability of clergy. It also envisions sharing 
the historic episcopate by including bishops of both churches in future 
consecrations and installations of bishops.

Let Jesus reign

     At a dinner for ecumenical and international guests the night before the service, 
Anderson expressed appreciation for a presence that "reminds us that this occasion 
is embedded in a much wider movement."

     The Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation,
 said that despite whatever fears Lutherans and Anglicans may have had, "this event 
is a deeply spiritual one that boldly reaches out," harvesting the results of long and 
patient dialogue.

     The Rev. John Peterson, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, said that 
the occasion was "one of those holy moments" in the life of the church. In keeping 
with the Epiphany theme, he said, "It is time to unwrap the swaddling clothes and 
let Jesus Christ reign in our lives."

     The three-hour service ended with a return by the presiding bishops to the baptismal 
font where they intoned the Epiphany blessing. "May Almighty God, who led the Magi 
by the shining of a star to find the Christ, the Light from Light, lead you also, in your 
pilgrimage, to find the Lord. May God, who sent the Holy Spirit to rest upon the 
only-begotten at his baptism in the Jordan River, pour out that Spirit on you who 
have come to the waters of new birth."

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and Information.