wfn.org | Lutherans approve changes to full communion pact with Episcopalians

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Note #6792 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

15-August-2001
01277

Lutherans approve changes to full communion pact with Episcopalians

Change that allows ordinations without a bishop present may cause trouble

by Kevin Eckstrom
Religion News Service

INDIANAPOLIS - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will allow pastors
to be ordained without a bishop in "unusual circumstances," significantly
altering a full communion agreement with the Episcopal Church and
potentially disrupting relations between the two churches.

	Meeting here for the church's Churchwide Assembly, delegates voted Aug. 11
683-330 to change the "Called to Common Mission" agreement which allows the
two churches to swap clergy and sacraments.

	But the change, intended as a compromise to Lutheran dissidents, left those
same critics only partially satisfied and left Episcopalians concerned the
Lutherans had reneged on an agreement passed two years ago.

	The dispute centers on ordination standards in the full communion pact.
Some in the ELCA are upset with a provision in which the ELCA adopted the
"historic episcopate" succession of bishops - which some believe stretches
back in an unbroken line to St. Peter - used by Episcopalians. It requires
Lutheran bishops, not just Lutheran pastors, to preside at ordinations.
Lutheran pastors who are ordained without a bishop would not be able to work
in Episcopal churches.

	Seeking to soothe those concerns, ELCA leaders offered the change that
allows a bishop to designate a pastor to preside at an ordination in
"unusual circumstances" after consultation with several layers of church
leadership.

	"A small exception is better than no exception at all, so you build on what
you've got," said former Minnesota Gov. Al Quie, an active Lutheran layman
and leader of the dissident forces, who wanted more freedom from the
historic episcopate but said he can live with the compromise.

	The Episcopal Church's director of ecumenical affairs, however, was not as
optimistic. "Such (agreements) may not be agreed upon by everyone in the
pew, but they are decisions made by the church's highest body and as such
they should be adhered to," said Episcopal Bishop Christopher Epting.

	Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold was disappointed by the vote. In
a written statement, Griswold said "it is too early" to tell what the
Episcopal Church's official response will be. The issue will likely come up
when Episcopalians meet in 2003.

	Griswold's new counterpart, ELCA Presiding Bishop-elect Mark Hanson, said
he supports the changes but said it does not embrace a theology that is
"foreign" to Lutherans.

	"We need to walk that line between the integrity of our promises to our
ecumenical partners and the integrity of our call to be leaders with a
concern for unity in this church, and I am very mindful that that's a very
precarious point to be at," he said.

	Some delegates said it was too soon to alter an agreement that was
inaugurated only eight months ago. Others said it was dangerous to alter a
pact that had already taken 40 years to create.

	Critics, as well as Griswold, said the rule will result in a two-tiered
system of pastors who can work in either church, and those who can't.

	The church soundly defeated a move, by a 705-277 vote, to make it legal and
routine for new pastors to avoid ordination by a bishop. Quie, who pushed
for that change, said such ordinations should not be "unusual" because
"throughout the history of Lutherans in this nation, we have permitted
pastors to do this."

	Delegates also rejected a move, 752?242, to refer the issue to the Church
Council and reconsider it when the church meets again in 2003.

	Supporters of the change called the final vote a good compromise. They
argued the wider latitude sought by Quie and other dissidents to allow new
pastors synod-by-synod to opt out of ordination rules would produce a
patchwork of uneven standards.

	"Synodical autonomy is no better than congregational autonomy," said Bishop
Paull Spring of Northwestern Pennsylvania.

	Although the Lutherans hold full communion agreements with four other
churches - the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, the
Moravian Church in America and the Reformed Church of America - the CCM pact
has been the hardest to iron out. It is also the only agreement in which the
Episcopal Church allows another church's clergy to officiate at its
services.
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