wfn.org | Closer ties with Lutherans brings windfall to Canadian Anglicans

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Closer ties with Lutherans brings windfall to Canadian Anglicans
Leanne Larmondin
Website Manager

Waterloo, Ont.
One happy fringe benefit of the closer ties forged by Anglicans and
Lutherans is a $50,000 grant to the Anglican Church of Canada made by a
Lutheran insurance company.

Lutheran Life Insurance Society of Canada, a not-for-profit fraternal
benefits, or member-owned insurance company, announced the grant at a
luncheon following the joint service held by the two churches to celebrate
their vote for full communion.

The company's president, Stephen Taylor, made the announcement.

That service, attended by some 3,400 worshippers from area Lutheran and
Anglican churches (many of which cancelled their regular Sunday services to
encourage their congregations to attend the joint service) was the
culmination of years of dialogue between the two denominations. There,
Archbishop Michael Peers, the Anglican primate, and Bishop Telmor Sartison,
national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, signed an
agreement enshrining full communion between the churches. Now, Anglican and
Lutheran clergy can move freely between the two churches and church members
may receive sacraments in either church.

Anticipating the full communion agreement, Lutheran Life members voted last
spring to open their membership beyond Lutherans, said Jim Widdecombe, vice
president of communications with the insurance company. That will open the
doors for Anglicans wishing membership in the society, currently numbering
30,000. Membership is automatic to anybody purchasing the company's
products, for instance, life or disability insurance.

The company will also donate $50,000 each to the two Lutheran denominations
in Canada: the ELCIC and Lutheran Church-Canada LCC.

Lutheran Life has asked the Anglican Church of Canada for its
recommendations on the destination for the money, but the church has not
yet decided. Lutheran Life's board of directors will have final approval on
where the money goes; Mr. Taylor said the donation is not intended to help
the Anglican Church with its litigation costs due to residential schools.
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Leanne Larmondin
Web Manager
Anglican Church of Canada
600 Jarvis St.
Toronto ON  L5E 2G1
(416) 924 9199 ext. 307
ll@anglican.ca
http://www.anglican.ca
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