NEWS STORY: Early reaction positive to new Lutheran-Episcopal accord

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ A proposed new accord between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church is getting its first look by the ELCA’s grassroots as the denomination’s synods _ or regional jurisdictions _ hold their annual meetings. So far, church officials say, the response is positive _ in […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ A proposed new accord between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church is getting its first look by the ELCA’s grassroots as the denomination’s synods _ or regional jurisdictions _ hold their annual meetings.

So far, church officials say, the response is positive _ in contrast to last summer’s action when the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly narrowly rejected a similar proposal to bring the two mainline church bodies into full communion.


At stake with the new accord are closer ties with the Episcopal Church, including the ability to share clergy across denominational lines and increased cooperation in social service and other mission programs.”There was a general mood of openness and appreciation for the clarity in the new document,”said the Rev. Daniel Martensen, the ELCA’s chief ecumenical officer.

Martensen noted that the first synods to consider the new draft accord were from the Midwest, generally considered an area of theological conservatism and pietism in the ELCA, where congregational autonomy takes precedence over hierarchical structure, thus fueling suspicion of such things as the office of bishop.

But Martensen said there appeared to be some shift in the Midwest toward a more favorable approach to the new proposal.”Some who endorsed it in western Iowa were among the earlier opposition voices,”he said. And other opponents withheld comment during synod discussions of the plan.

Martensen added that after talking with conservative leaders in Minnesota, where last year’s heaviest opposition was based,”clearly, there was a positive shift in mood.” The new proposal was drafted by a writing team headed by the Rev. Martin Marty, the renowned church historian at the University of Chicago and one of the nation’s most prominent Lutherans.

Last summer’s rejection of the full-communion plan with the Episcopal Church was an embarrassment to ELCA leaders and they vowed to take a second run at it.

This time, according to church officials, the new agreement prepared by the Marty committee is clearer in its language and it seeks to address the main objections from conservatives.

Those objections center on the office of bishop and the Episcopal Church’s commitment to the historic episcopate _ a special marking of the succession of bishops by the laying on of hands through an unbroken line back to the early church. The Episcopal Church requires all clergy to be ordained by bishops in the historic episcopate.


Under the new proposal, Lutheran bishops will still _ eventually _ be incorporated into the historic episcopate.

Just as likely in the ordination of new clergy, however, will be the use of bishops from Lutheran denominations in Europe, Africa and Central America, where the historic episcopacy is retained.”We have to be clear,”Marty told the ELCA’s Church Council in late April when it approved sending the new proposal to the synods.”Any Lutherans, however creative or imaginative or visionary they may be, who say that they propose and desire full communion with Episcopalians but without the episcopate are wasting time, breath and ink.” But, Marty said, the new proposed accord does not mean Lutherans accept the episcopate as among the essentials of faith.

Also under the proposal, Lutheran bishops would still serve set terms _ unlike election for life as among the Episcopalians _ and turn to other duties, including the pastorate, when they step down. Lutheran bishops and former bishops, however, will be the only clerics who can ordain new clergy.

Meanwhile, as soon as the agreement is approved by both denominations, the Episcopal Church will recognize the ordinations of all ELCA clerics.

Martensen said the shift in mood at the synods appeared to reflect the document’s language saying the role of bishop is”a sign, not a mark.” Episcopalians still insist on language that they be involved in future installations of bishops, Martensen said, but he added it is possible that language will be”tempered.” Martensen also said he hopes that as Lutherans work their way toward an agreement it will not generate any opposition in the Episcopal Church, which unanimously approved last year’s agreement but still must hold a ratifying vote in 2000.

He’s also hoping that Episcopal Church canon lawyers, who say they will not look at the agreement until a final draft comes out in August, will declare the new agreement is not sufficiently different from last summer’s rejected Concordat of Agreement so that the Episcopal Church has to begin its approval process all over again. If the canon lawyers say the two proposals are closely enough related, that would clear the way for 2000’s ratifying vote. The ELCA will vote on the proposed accord in 1999.


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