c. 1997 Religion News Serive

UNDATED _ With even some of its opponents stung _ and embarrassed _ by this summer’s rejection of a full communion agreement with the Episcopal Church, Lutheran leaders are picking up the pieces and predicting a revised pact, approved by Lutherans, will be ready for the next Episcopal General Convention.”I have never seen, among the bishops, as much sorrow, anger and outward emotional response as I did after the Concordat (the full communion plan) was defeated,”said Bishop Kenneth Olsen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Metro Chicago Synod.

The Concordat, 20 years in the making, had it been approved, would have made permanent a series of links between the two denominations, including mutual recognition of each other’s ministries and ordinations, more widespread inter-communion, and the deepened fostering of joint parishes and ministries.

Although the pact was approved in July by the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church’s General Convention _ its top governing body _ the 5.2 million-member ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly, meeting less than three weeks later, fell six votes short of mustering the two-thirds vote necessary to win approval.

The loss, driven prominently by congregationalist-oriented Lutherans in the Midwest with a long history of being suspicious of hierarchy, seemed to embarrass even some of the opponents’ leaders.”I obviously made a mistake in misjudging the people in the pews,” said Al Quie, a former governor of Minnesota and prominent Lutheran lay leader who was among the Concordat’s most outspoken opponents.

“I would work for passage next time, but would like to be included in the discussion,”Quie said.

But, he added,”I don’t think any Anglican bishop needs to put his hands on any Lutheran bishopâÂ?¦.That’s what makes it all offensive to me.”

Quie referred to the most sensitive, and for many Lutherans, the most troublesome, part of the failed Concordat _ a system for bringing Lutheran bishops into the so-called historic episcopate, the unbroken line of bishops stretching back to the early church.

In an attempt to begin repairing the breach, on Sept. 30 ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson met privately Bishop Frank Griswold, the incoming presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. The two talked about the future of their churches together.

Anderson said he sought the meeting with Griswold because”it is crucial to see what possibilities he (Griswold) is willing to entertain as we proceed to develop the revised text”of the Concordat the ELCA called for after defeating the proposal.

Griswold, who was elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church at the July General Convention, told The New York Times he is reluctant”to offer a new invitation without evidence that the Lutherans would respond positively.” In the wake of his meeting with Griswold, Anderson walked into the Oct. 2-7 meeting of the ELCA’s Council of Bishops and proposed a set of next steps aimed at winning approval for a new version of the full communion by 2000, when the Episcopal Church next meets in General Convention.

At the same time, a number of Lutheran and Episcopal bishops issued joint statements expressing their commitment to continue working together despite the defeat of the Concordat.”While we are are disappointed at this delay in our journey together, our commitment is clear,”the six Episcopal and two Lutheran bishops in Virginia said in a joint statement distributed earlier this month.”We are determined to strengthen our joint witness and to live more deeply our unity in Christ,” The denominations’ two bishops in Washington, D.C. issued a similar statement, calling on the churches’ top officials to”to persevere in the search for `full communion’ by moving quickly to undertake the necessary steps to further this urgent conversation.” The ELCA’s Council of Bishops, acting after the Anderson-Griswold meeting, took steps to do just that.

They agreed to pursue a rewritten document aimed at making the rationale of the agreement less theological and more accessible to the laity. It will also recommend”revision of the Concordat at a few key places.” But, those”key places”may involve something central to Episcopalian understanding of the church _ the lifelong consecration of bishops.

Other issues the Lutherans will examine at both the congregational and synodical (regional) levels in the next few months include:

_ The Episcopal system of ordination to three offices: deacons, priests and bishops, versus the Lutheran style of ministers and bishops with a fixed term of office;

_ Ordinations of clergy by bishops, as required by the Episcopal Church, versus the Lutheran practice which allows clergy to be ordained by other clergy with the bishop’s permission.

_ The need for Episcopal and Lutheran bishops to be involved in consecrations of future bishops in order to gradually bring Lutheran bishops into the historic episcopate.

Anderson said he hoped a revised text of the Concordat can be ready for examination by the ELCA’s more than 60 synodical groups when they begin meeting in the spring.

DEA END BRIGGS