TOP STORY: SEARCHING FOR UNITY: Lutheran and Episcopal bishops thrash out unity proposal

c. 1996 Religion News Service WHITE HAVEN, Pa. _ At a critical moment near the end of the historic six-day joint meeting of the bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Lutherans sent what amounted to a small valentine to the Episcopal prelates meeting separately, some 100 feet […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WHITE HAVEN, Pa. _ At a critical moment near the end of the historic six-day joint meeting of the bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Lutherans sent what amounted to a small valentine to the Episcopal prelates meeting separately, some 100 feet down the hall.”… We extend thanks to the bishops of the Episcopal Church in the USA for the fellowship and sharing that have been our joy to experience in our time together here,”the Monday (Oct. 7) afternoon message said.”May we who have been called to lead God’s people be sensitive to the Spirit’s direction in the future.” The message, more than the words themselves, marked a dramatic turning point in an emotionally charged meeting at which the ELCA’s 67-member Conference of Bishops and 160 of the Episcopal Church’s 307-member House of Bishops talked and prayed, and worshiped and walked together at a mountain resort here at the edge of the Pocono Mountains.

But until the Lutherans sent their message, a sense of gloom seemed to descend upon the Mountain Laurel Resort Hotel _ despite the glorious autumn weather and changing mountain foliage. The Lutherans feared their ministers might not receive proper recognition, jeopardizing adoption of a proposed unity statement by the two churches.


The Oct. 3-8 joint meeting was called so that the bishops of the two denominations could get better acquainted, build trust, and thrash out the practical implications of”The Concordat of Agreement”_ a nine-page document that would permit the exchange of clergy between the two denominations and allows members to receive Holy Communion in congregations of either denomination.

The document is the result of 30 years of consultations.”Just our being together should get major headlines in a world that so desperately needs reconciliation,”said Episcopal Bishop Edward Jones, who heads the church’s Indianapolis diocese.

Jones, in comments repeated by bishops again and again, said the quest for greater unity between the two denominations is rooted in Jesus’ New Testament plea that”they all be one … so that the world may believe”(John 17:21).”A fragmented and fragmenting world needs signs of encouragement that … communities which have lived alongside but separated from each other can be reconciled,”Jones said.

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The Concordat is the most visible and potentially far-reaching of a number of proposals for church unity currently being discussed among mainstream Protestants, and between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the United States and abroad.

On Sept. 1, leaders of Anglican churches in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland and Lutheran churches in Norway, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Iceland signed what is called the Porvoo Agreement, a similar but not identical plan for full communion between those churches.

Other unity efforts underway include a proposal involving the ELCA and three other Protestant churches _ the United Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA); a proposed joint declaration by the Vatican and world Lutheran bodies resolving centuries old doctrinal disputes; and proposed unity steps being discussed by nine Protestant denominations involved in what is known as the Consultation on Church Union (COCU).

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The Lutherans’ brief message to the Episcopalians here expressed thanks for the first-ever joint meeting of the two bodies of bishops and was brought to the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops by Lutheran Bishop Ralph A. Kempski, head of the ELCA’s Indiana-Kentucky Synod. It received a standing ovation from the Episcopal leaders _ and went a long way toward creating a new sense of optimism about the Concordat’s future.


It was meant to reassure the Episcopalians that the Lutherans, despite some deep-seated reservations, were not about to abandon the long effort to bring the two churches into full communion _ but not merger _ next year.”I don’t think things will ever be the same for our two churches again,”said Episcopal Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning Monday night following the Lutheran statement.”I think,”added the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the 5.2-million member ELCA,”that they’re (Lutheran bishops) a lot further along the road … than they were when they came.” Although the meeting started with general enthusiasm for the Concordat, it quickly became apparent that a significant number of the Lutheran bishops had some reservations about the nine-page Concordat.

Reservations, centered on Lutheran fears about the office of bishop, were expressed publicly during the separate sessions of the two bodies and more privately in small group discussions during joint sessions.”I have been picking up a lot of hesitation on the part of Lutherans,”said Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, spiritual head of the 60 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, to which the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church belongs.”Don’t feel too bad,”he told the Episcopal bishops,”if you don’t pull it off exactly as you want it at this time.” Final votes on the Concordat are expected at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Philadelphia next July and at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly two weeks later, also in Philadelphia.

In an apparent response to Carey, Anderson urged Episcopalians not to consider Lutheran reservations as”the whining of a younger son,”adding:”We need to be honest about the costs on both sides.” At the heart of the Lutheran reservations is the relationship between the concepts of”apostolic succession,”which means continuity with Christ’s teachings, and the”historic episcopate,”an unbroken line of bishops which traces its origins to the earliest days of the Christian church.

For Episcopalians, the historic episcopate is one of the signs of apostolic succession, a succession maintained even after the break with Rome in the 17th century. In the United States, however, most Lutheran bishops are not a part of the historic episcopate because at the time of the Reformation many Lutheran groups in Europe named their own bishops and thus were not ordained by someone within the succession.

The Concordat provides that Lutherans will be incorporated gradually into the historic episcopate by having their new bishops ordained by Episcopal bishops already within the succession.

Episcopalians, for their part, will suspend, for a time, a 17th-century requirement that all clergy presiding in Episcopal parishes be ordained first within the historic episcopate.


Summaries provided to reporters of the private, small group discussions suggested that a number of Lutheran bishops felt the requirement of being incorporated into the historic episcopacy could make the Lutherans feel like second-class citizens, or that their ministries were not as authentic as their Episcopal counterparts.”There needs to be evidence that these concerns have been heard and not just dismissed”by those supporting the Concordat, said Bishop Stanley Olson, head of ELCA’s Southwestern Minnesota Synod.

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Episcopal Bishop Christopher Epting, head of the Diocese of Iowa, agreed that Lutheran sensitivities had to be taken into account.”We have to be careful to move ahead in such a way that current Lutheran clergy don’t feel disenfranchised,”he said.

Bishop Peter Rogness of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA, said he believed there were only”knots”of opposition to the proposal but that”a fair number of clergy and the vast number of lay people who will be voting on the proposal (next summer) are not well-informed.” In their caucus, the Lutherans voted to send 12 proposed changes in the Concordat to the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee, which will, at a Oct. 30-Nov. 3 meeting in Indianapolis, prepare the final text of the Concordat.

Jones, who heads the Episcopal side of the Joint Coordinating Committee, said the concerns raised”have been honest”and the committee”will take seriously the hopes and the concerns”voiced during the meeting.

At a final celebration of the Eucharist (Holy Communion) on Tuesday morning, Anderson and Browning, the two presiding bishops, issued a”Mountain Laurel Communique,”taking its name from the resort at which the bishops met.”We have discussed with candor the challenges and opportunities before us and worked to clarify the issues and contribute to further refinement of the proposals,”the two leaders said.”We acknowledge that many welcome the possibilities of our future with joy and others are less certain about the path. We believe that we are being summoned anew to embrace more completely our unity in faith.”

MJP END ANDERSON

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