DENMARK: Lutheran church agrees Nordic accord with Anglicans
Episcopal News Service. January 19, 2010 [011910-06]
Peter Kenny
At an international service for the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen on Dec. 13 congregants noted a strong Anglican presence with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams preaching the main sermon and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu leading a key prayer.
Church officials said that it was probably a coincidence but a few days before the service, on Dec. 9, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark had agreed to sign the Porvoo Declaration on joint collaboration with Anglican churches.
Other Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches were already party to the Porvoo Communion, an agreement instituted in 1996 between them and Anglican churches in Britain and Ireland. Since then, the Danish church has been an official observer at the communion.
"As observers, we have received a lot of input into our church and we have been inspired on practical church questions, such as diaconal work, mission, interreligious dialogue and much more," said Paul Verner Skaerved, chairperson of the Danish church's Council on International Relations.
"So, it was also a logical step for the council to take the decision to become a full member of the Porvoo Communion," noted Skaerved after the vote to join the grouping.
"We know that the Anglican churches have wanted the Danish church in the fellowship, since they feel a close link to us historically and ecclesiastically. Denmark can also contribute with an informal, democratic culture and structure, and a long tradition of practical social work in the church," he said.
The Council on International Relations plans to conduct an official signing of the Porvoo Declaration in 2010. This means that ministers who are ordained in Denmark's Lutheran Church will be able to serve in other churches in the group.
In 1995, the Danish church had chosen not to join the Porvoo Communion for a number of reasons on matters that included the recognition of women bishops. Still, in the meantime, Anglican bishops had "changed their positions considerably" on such issues, a statement from the Danish church said.
The decision to join the Porvoo Communion came after the Danish Lutheran bishops made it known that there were no longer any doctrinal obstacles to membership.
Still, the way in which the decision was announced led to some questioning in the Danish press. Writing in Denmark's Kristeligt Dagblad daily newspaper, Jakob Holm said that in announcing the decision, the church's much vaunted "democratic process" was conspicuous by its absence.
In recent times, the decision by the Church of Sweden to recognize and bless same-sex marriages has caused some turbulence in the Porvoo Communion, since the Church of England does not provide for such a practice.
The Porvoo Communion meanwhile has been extended to include two churches on the Iberian peninsula that are members of the worldwide Anglican Communion. They are the Lusitanian Church of Portugal, and the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church.