c. 1997 Religion News Service
MILWAUKEE _ The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America _ the denomination’s highest governing body _ Wednesday (June 18) overwhelmingly approved a historic unity agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the first of four denominations to move toward repairing a 465-year-old Protestant rift.
The synod adopted the Formula of Agreement, a compact hammered out between the ELCA and three Reformed bodies, including the RCA, but included language allowing the RCA not to accept practicing homosexuals into their pulpits.
Adding the gay-related language allayed fears among social conservatives in the church the accord would give tacit approval to the United Church of Christ’s policy permitting the ordination of practicing gays and lesbians.
Church leaders lauded the vote by the 270 synod delegates, meeting this week on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
“This will be heard around the world,” said the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the 300,000-member RCA, adding the approval may pave the way for Lutheran-Reformed dialogues in other countries.
If the agreement is approved by all four churches, it will put the RCA in “full communion” with the United Church of Christ (UCC), the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the ELCA. That means the denominations can accept each others’ ministers without reordination, and take communion in each others’ churches.
The Presbyterians, currently meeting in Syracuse, N.Y., are expected to vote on the proposal before the end of their meeting June 21. On Monday (June 16), the (General) Assembly Committee on Ecumenical Relations voted to approve the Formula of Agreement and recommend the full General Assembly approve pact.
In committee deliberations, questions were raised that the document might lead to the creation of”additional bureaucratic structures”_ the Lutherans have the office of bishop _ and it might create”loopholes”in Presbyterian ordination standards because of the UCC gay ordination policy.
The committee recommended that, if approved by the General Assembly, a cover letter be sent to presbyteries when they vote on the document saying”it is the clear understanding that the Presbyterian Church (USA) retains its own standards of ordination and no new structures are mandated by this agreement.” The UCC meets July 3-8 in Columbus, Ohio, and the ELCA gathers Aug. 14-20 in Philadelphia.
While the proposal has generally received a favorable response from the leaders of all four denominations, the ELCA reported Wednesday that opposition to the Lutheran-Reform agreement and a similar”concordat”between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church is beginning to organize within the 5.2 million-member ELCA.
But ELCA Bishop Guy Edmiston of Harrisburg, Pa., attending the meeting as an ecumenical observer, called the vote “an extremely historic action. To me, it’s a pivotal moment in ecumenical history.” Although the document mends the Reformed-Lutheran split dating back to the first years of the Protestant Reformation, the synod focused on the RCA’s relationship with the UCC, another Reformed denomination, and its ordination of gays.
The RCA has long held that homosexual orientation is not sinful, but homosexual practice is, and bars practicing gays and lesbians from its pulpits.
Formula proponents stressed the agreement won’t change the RCA’s current relationship with the UCC or the Presbyterians and won’t mean practicing homosexuals will be allowed in RCA pulpits, a key concern among church members. “(The agreement) doesn’t mean a gay pastor in the UCC is going to come into an RCA congregation and there’s nothing we can do to stop it,” said Granberg-Michaelson, also the denomination’s chief ecumenical officer.
The synod made those safeguards explicit before voting on the agreement in approving a statement spelling out what “full communion” means and emphasizing that classes, or local jurisdictions, have final control over ministerial credentials.
In other synod action:
_ Delegates voted unanimously to send a statement requiring clergy to annually affirm that Jesus is the only way to salvation back to classes for a vote.
_ Instructed the RCA’s Commission on Theology to develop new standards for “moral and ethical behavior, including sexual purity, as it relates to qualifications for ordained ministry.” The recommendation arose out of a communication from a classis aimed at making sure the RCA doesn’t ordain practicing homosexuals.
MJP END GOLDER
