wfn.org | ACNS: Anglican - Lutheran Working Group meets in Porto Alegre

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 2987 - COMMUNIQUI - 23 May 2002

Meeting of the Anglican - Lutheran International Working Group

Porto Alegre, Brazil

11-14 May 2002

Background (as referred to also in last year's communiqui)

The dialogue between Anglicans and Lutherans on the worldwide level has been
underway in varying formats since 1970. Prominent among the reports produced
by this dialogue are The Niagara Report (1987), focusing on the mission of
the church and the role of the ordained ministry, and The Diaconate as an
Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), which were produced by the Anglican -
Lutheran International Commission.

On the national and regional levels, Anglican and Lutheran churches have,
over several years, moved toward different, binding forms of church
fellowship, stemming from agreements such as the Meissen Common Statement
(1988) between the Church of England and the Evangelical Church of Germany,
the Porvoo Common Statement (1996) between the British and Irish Anglican
Churches and most of the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches, and the
Reuilly Common Statement (1999) between the British and Irish Anglican
Churches and the French Lutheran and Reformed Churches, Called to Common
Mission between the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America and the Waterloo Declaration between The Anglican Church
of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. A proposal for
covenanting is now before the churches in Australia. Other significant
developments in Anglican - Lutheran relations are taking place in Africa and
Brazil.

The Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in 1997 and the Lambeth
Conference of Anglican bishops in 1998 both expressed their support of the
developments toward agreements of church fellowship on regional and national
level - those achieved and those in progress - between Anglican and Lutheran
churches. They also affirmed the commitment of the two communions to
continue and further their bilateral ecumenical relations.

In order to continue the formal contact between the two communions, it was
decided in 1998 by the authorities of the Lutheran World Federation and the
Anglican Communion, that a joint working group would be established. The
mandate of the working group involves monitoring the development and
progress in Anglican - Lutheran relations in the various regions of the
world and assessing the significance of the regional developments for the
furthering of relationships between Anglicans and Lutherans worldwide.

The initial meeting in 2000 reviewed and discussed the ongoing processes
related to the various developments in Anglican - Lutheran relations
worldwide. It identified several issues of principle and practice in the
life of the communions and their ecumenical relations calling for further
examination. It began to clarify and assess such issues.

Meeting in 2001 in Skalholt, Iceland, the Working Group heard regional
reports and examined the coherence and compatibility of the agreements
reached between Anglicans and Lutherans in different regional dialogues.

The present meeting

The Anglican - Lutheran International Working Group met again from 11 to 14
May 2002 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, hosted by the Anglican Communion in
cooperation with the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil. The following
persons, appointed by the respective communions, took part:

Lutherans: Bishop Ambrose Moyo, Zimbabwe, (co-chair); the Revd Dr Hartmut
Hvvelmann, Germany; Professor Michael Root, USA; Professor Mickey Mattox,
USA/ France; and the Revd Sven Oppegaard, The Lutheran World Federation
(co-secretary).

Anglicans: Bishop David Tustin, England, (co-chair), Bishop Sebastian
Bakare, Zimbabwe; the Revd Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, Canada; Bishop
Orlando Santos de Oliveira, Brazil; the Very Revd Professor William H
Petersen, USA; and the Revd Canon David Hamid, Anglican Communion Office
(co-secretary). The Revd Dr G|nter Esser from the Old Catholic Churches of
the Union of Utrecht participated as an observer. (The Anglicans and Old
Catholics have been in communion since the Bonn Agreement of 1931). Ms
Frances Hiller, Anglican Communion Office, served as administrative
assistant to the meeting.

The Working Group heard reports from the participants on the development of
Anglican - Lutheran agreements in their respective regions. The bulk of the
Working Group's time was devoted to crafting a final report in fulfillment
of the mandate given by the respective world communions. With this meeting
the Working Group brings its work to a conclusion. Members also joined in
daily morning and evening prayer with members of the seminary community at
the Provincial Centre of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.

On Sunday 12 May, the beginning of the week of prayer for Christian Unity,
the Working Group participated in the Eucharist at the Anglican Cathedral of
the Most Holy Trinity in Porto Alegre, at which Bishop Ambrose Moyo was the
preacher. The celebratory service also included the participation of the
Most Revd Dadeus Grings, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Catholic
Church in Porto Alegre; Pastor Heitor Meurer, Communications Secretary of
the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, representing
the Pastor President; the Revd Joco Fernando Mondini, representing the
Regional Bishop of the Methodist Church; along with representatives of the
Focolare Movement and many ecumenical organizations of the city.

On Monday 13 May the group was received by President Pastor Huberto
Kirchheim and his staff in the offices of the Evangelical Church of the
Lutheran Confession of Brazil. On Tuesday 14 May the Working Group was
welcomed to a dinner hosted by the Most Revd Glauco Soares de Lima, Primate
of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil.

The Working Group's final report, entitled "Growth in Communion", will be
submitted to the respective world communions.

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