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and shaking maracas

Joint worship features dancing bishops and shaking maracas
Leanne Larmondin
Website Manager

Waterloo, Ont.
Two denominations came together here in a joint worship celebration, making
real the biblical concept of one bread, one body.

The service, held at a local arena - one of few locations big enough for
the thousands of worshippers expected - featured both the solemnity of an
historic moment and frivolity, including a choir, shaking tambourines and
maracas and two national church leaders dancing in celebration.

The Anglican Church of Canada and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada,
having both voted July 6 in favour of full communion between the two
churches, came together  at the Waterloo Recreation Centre to worship and
sign a historic agreement. The signing of the Waterloo Declaration, the
document that makes real full communion between the two denominations, was
the culmination of years of dialogue.

Outgoing national Bishop Telmor Sartison, of the ELCIC, was presider and
Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
delivered the sermon.

Archbishop Peers recalled for the assembled congregation his experience as
a parish priest in a Winnipeg church 30 years ago, which shared a building
with a Lutheran church.

"I think on both sides of the church, there were questions: Who are these
people? Where are we going? What is going to come of this?" he said.

Now, he said, here were the two denominations 30 years later, meeting at
two different places, the University of Waterloo (the General Synod of the
Anglican Church of Canada) and Wilfrid Laurier University (the ELCIC's
national convention) yet coming together at the table. In the practical
sense, he said, they had come together at the table, having shared many
meals over the last few days, including a large banquet the evening before
with members of both national gatherings present.

"Now, here we are at another table, at the Lord's table," said Archbishop
Peers. "Yes, for a meal, but what a meal! A meal to remember, and into this
meal comes the word of God."

Recalling the reading of Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16, by Ishmael Noko, general
secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Archbishop Peers spoke of "one
body and one spirit ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all", drawing the analogy of the two denominations coming
together in one body.

Defining the word "remember" as putting members back together (re-member),
Archbishop Peers said that the two churches' forging closer ties was like a
re-membering or a reforming what had been dismembered.

"It is the restoration of our wholeness," he said.

Following the official signing of the Waterloo Declaration, the
congregation broke out in applause and trumpets played as Bishop Sartison
and Archbishop Peers walked around the raised altar area, the latter
raising his arms in a triumphant gesture.

After the service, the two church leaders sang the closing hymn, "We are
marching in the light of God" as they danced around the arena's ice
surface, with television cameras and newspaper photographers struggling to
catch the joyful moment.
- 30 -

Link:

Joint synod service: on ice, with a twist
(anglican.ca website news story)
< http://anglican.ca/news/online/news.html?newsItem=2001-06-12_ll-b.news>
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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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