wfn.org | Lutheran-Episcopal Christmas eve from Kansas City to be on CBS

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2001-321

Lutheran-Episcopal Christmas eve from Kansas City to be on CBS

by Melodie Woerman

     (ENS) Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Kansas City, 
Missouri, will be the setting for a special Christmas Eve service to 
be broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The service will welcome 
guests and members of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America from the greater Kansas City area. A 
congregation of more than 500 people is expected.

     CBS selected the service to highlight the joint ministry that 
is now possible since "full communion" between the two churches 
was declared earlier this year.

     The one-hour telecast is set for Christmas Eve, Monday, 
December 24 at 11:35 p.m. Eastern (viewers should contact their 
local CBS-TV stations for the exact air time in their community).

     This will be the first national broadcast of a joint 
Lutheran-Episcopal service since the two denominations entered 
into their "full communion" partnership on January. 1, 2001. Bishops 
from the Kansas City metropolitan area who will participate in the 
service are: Bishop Barry Howe, Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri; 
Bishop William Smalley, Episcopal Diocese of Kansas; and Bishop 
Gerald Mansholt, Evangelical Lutheran Central States Synod.

     Howe will officiate during the opening "Liturgy of the Word," 
Smalley will preach and Mansholt will preside during the celebration 
of the Eucharist (Holy Communion).

Unity stronger than division

     Howe said the timing of the service was especially significant. 
"As people search for meaning in uncertain times, this shared service 
offers a sense of purpose and mutual support as we gather together at 
Christmas to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace."

     Mansholt, whose jurisdiction covers Kansas and Missouri, said, 
"I hope people across the country will watch this service and see 
that unity is stronger than division."

     Smalley, who serves eastern Kansas, said the service is an 
important symbol of the new relationship between the two churches. 
"There already is much we are doing together in mission and ministry, 
both in the Kansas City area and around the nation," he added. "This 
joint worship service is a sign of the unity we experience in so many 
other ways."

     Lutherans and Episcopalians, laity and clergy, will share roles 
in the service as lectors (reading Scripture), prayer intercessors, 
musicians, acolytes and as chalice bearers administering communion.

Full communion

      "Full communion" between the two churches was approved by their 
national governing assemblies-the ELCA in 1999 and the Episcopal Church 
in 2000, capping 30 years of theological dialogue and discussion of 
mutual opportunities for ministry. The agreement provides for full 
interchangeability of clergy and the sharing of ministry and sacraments 
between the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church and the 5.2 
million-member ELCA. Since the first of this year ELCA and Episcopal 
clergy have been able to serve in either church's ministries, at the 
invitation of a bishop.

     The Rev. H. George Anderson, former ELCA presiding bishop, said, 
"One of the gifts full communion brings is the opportunity to discover 
gifts that each of the churches have, which can be used to share with 
the other. In my view, it is one example of God's continued gathering 
of God's people."

     The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Frank 
T. Griswold, called the full communion agreement "a very significant 
sign that our two churches can live in communion with one another for 
the sake of a greater unity in the service of a common mission."

Joint ministry

     Even before the two bodies voted on full communion, ministry in 
various settings was already being shared by Lutherans and Episcopalians 
in Kansas and Missouri.

     Since 1996, Canterbury House at the University of Kansas in 
Lawrence has been a joint Episcopal-Lutheran initiative, providing 
resident student peer ministers there the chance to observe the 
Benedictine rule of prayer, work and study. An adjoining chapel offers 
time for the community to worship as one, as well as regular weekly 
services when each tradition uses its own liturgical rites.

     The two denominations also jointly sponsor a program in Kansas 
and Missouri for musicians serving small congregations. The region's 
version of the Leadership Program for Musicians in Small Churches is 
the only LPMSC program in the country conducted jointly; the others 
serve Episcopal churches.

     The two churches work together with other denominations in the 
region supporting Souljourners, a training program for spiritual 
directors, the only such program in the area. Lutherans and 
Episcopalians were among Souljourners' first graduating class in 2000. 
And churches in the metropolitan Kansas City area have begun taking 
advantage of the full communion provision for clergy interchangeability.

     In Topeka, the Rev. George Heller recently was named pastor of 
St. Paul's Lutheran Church in nearby Valley Falls, while continuing 
to serve as vicar of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Topeka, a post 
he has held since 1995.

     In September, the Rev. Helen Svoboda-Barber, an Episcopal priest, 
was named associate pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in suburban 
Overland Park, Kansas, to serve in a specialized ministry with people 
in their 20s and 30s. The Rev. Robert Terrill, upon completing a term 
as provost of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Topeka in February, is serving 
as interim pastor of Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Independence,
Missouri.

Production and planning

     The Episcopal Dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri and the 
Evangelical Lutheran Central States Synod, in association with the 
Episcopal Church national Office of Communication, are producing the 
Christmas Eve telecast for CBS. Mark Honer of DHTV Productions has 
been named producer and director.

     Members of the Christmas Eve television production task force are: 
Mrs. Winnie Crapson, ecumenical officer for the Diocese of Kansas (ECUSA); 
the Rev. Dr. Richard Jeske (ELCA); the Rev. Ruth McAleer (ECUSA); the 
Ven. John H. McCann (ECUSA); the Rev. William Sappenfield, ecumenical 
representative for the Central States Synod (ELCA); the Rev. Ross Stuckey, 
ecumenical officer for the Diocese of West Missouri (ECUSA); Deacon Dick 
Tracy (ECUSA); and Mrs. Melodie Woerman (ECUSA).

--Melodie Woerman is director of communication and editor of Plenteous 
Harvest in the Diocese of Kansas.