Progress Reported on Lutheran-Episcopal Paper
Episcopal News Service. January 29, 1987 [87020]
TECHNY, Ill. (DPS, Jan. 29) -- "Significant progress" was reported by participants in the third round of the Lutheran-Episcopal dialogue following their Jan. 11-14 meeting here.
Members have been working for two years on "The Gospel and its Implications," a 40-page document which is expected to be finished during the group's next meeting, June 7-11. They have agreed to ask their respective church bodies to study and eventually approve the paper.
The 11 Lutheran and seven Episcopalian theologians at the meeting praised the paper for its provocative examination of the Gospel in light of the mission of the Church in the world. The paper approaches the topic of the Gospel from the point of view of a vision for the future, rather than from the usual focus on sin and Justification, according to various dialogue participants.
The preliminary conclusion of the paper says that the paper was written as it was "because such a focus places the theme of the 'reign of God' at the center of the gospel...and because such a focus helps the Church to affirm and integrate the various dimensions of its mission more faithfully."
The Very Rev. John H. Rodgers, Jr., dean of the Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., said in an interview that "perhaps this paper will challenge [the churches'] institutional complacency. It may help us to see a more radical calling." Rodgers has participated in two previous U.S. Lutheran-Episcopal dialogues and the international Lutheran-Anglican dialogue that began in 1969.
The Rev. Dr. Walter R. Bouman, professor of systematic theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, said he hoped the paper would "make a persuasive case" and thus help "some insoluble problems to look different." Bouman co-authored the paper with the Very Rev. William Petersen of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y.
Bouman said the paper tries to explain, for example, that unifying the Church -- the very point of theological dialogues -- is in itself a "witness to the gospel" and one of its "implications."
The document is also unusual, dialogue participants said, because it consists almost exclusively of a single point-of-view, rather than separate perspectives by Lutherans and Episcopalians.
That is partially explained by the close theological relationship that has developed between Lutherans and Episcopalians. In 1982, the Lutheran Church in America, American Lutheran Church and Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Episcopal Church agreed at separate conventions to begin "interim sharing of the eucharist."
The three Lutheran churches will merge in 1988 to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which did not sign the 1982 agreement and is not expected to sign the latest document, does, however, participate in the dialogue.
Although a new level of cooperation has emerged from the 1982 agreement and the two previous dialogues, representatives at the meeting said the role of the historic episcopate in the Church's ministry is the most important issue remaining before the two traditions can move toward full communion, which includes sharing of sacraments and ministries and making decisions together in official assemblies.
Dialogue participants expect to take up the historic episcopate issue when they complete the paper on the Gospel, which they described at the recent meeting as a contribution on "the road to full communion."
The discussion of the historic episcopate may also influence the international ecumenical movement, Rodgers said. "We are unique among dialogues going on in the world because the discussion is among two communions that are rather alike. We have never had a major fight with each other."
The similarities have helped dialogue participants move relatively quickly and surely toward full communion. If that goal is reached, Rodgers said, "it will set a pattern that can be used widely around the world.
"This funny little dialogue right here might be the place where the log is pulled out of the ecumenical logjam," he said.
But before full communion is reached, the two traditions will have to face the main theological question dividing them: whether the historic episcopate is essential for the full unity of the Church. The historic episcopate is generally understood as the historical succession of bishops through consecration (laying on of hands) dating back to the apostolic church.
The Episcopal Church, like all Anglican churches, holds that it has a historic episcopate and sees the historic episcopate as an essential element of spiritual oversight and of "apostolic succession" -- the way in which the apostolic teaching and faith of the Church is maintained throughout history. The historic episcopate is necessary for the full unity of the Church, Episcopalians believe.
Lutherans, with the exception of the Swedish and Finnish churches, do not claim to have the historic episcopate. The national and regional leaders of the three merging American groups are called bishops, though they were called presidents until the 1970's.
Lutherans agree with Episcopalians that spiritual oversight and "apostolic succession" are necessary for the Church but believe that no particular form of ministry, such as the historic episcopate, should be required either for the ministry or the full unity of the Church.
Both Lutheran and Episcopal representatives said Lutherans might be willing to accept the historic episcopate if it were not insisted upon as necessary. "If Anglicans push on it and say, 'It has to be,' Lutherans will have to resist," said Bishop William G. Weinhauer of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina and co-chairman of the dialogue. His Lutheran counterpart is the Rev. Dr. Paul E. Erickson, bishop in the Illinois Synod of the LCA.
"Historically, Anglicans have not entered into full communion with anyone in the Christian tradition that did not have the historic episcopate. Can we dare leap forward? Sure, all things are possible with God's grace," Weinhauer said.
"What are the odds? I wouldn't want to guess."