Anglicans, Lutherans Meet In Canada
Episcopal News Service. October 15, 1987 [87206]
NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario (DPS, Oct. 15) -- Episcope (oversight in the Church) was the theme of an international Anglican-Lutheran consultation sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council and the Lutheran World Federation, here, Sept. 24-Oct. 3. The conference had been called for in 1983 by an Anglican-Lutheran Joint Working Group and was planned by the Anglican-Lutheran International Continuation Committee, which met for the first time in Wimbledon, England, in 1986.
Relationships between Anglicans and Lutherans in many parts of the world have been growing much closer over the past decade, and the Anglican-Lutheran International Continuation Committee was given the responsibility of monitoring and coordinating these advances. Facing the crisis of apartheid in Namibia and feeling keenly a responsibility for mission in Tanzania brought Lutherans and Anglicans closer together in both countries. The Episcopal Church and most American Lutherans entered upon Interim Eucharistic Sharing in 1982, setting a precedent for the churches in Canada and in Europe. Close relationships have prevailed between the Nordic churches and the Church of England for decades.
Official reports from several regional or national conversations have shown that Anglicans and Lutherans have vastly more in common than that which separates them. The chief barrier to full fellowship has been the ministry of an historic episcopate in the Anglican Communion. Most Lutheran churches have bishops but, largely through historical developments in the 16th century Reformation, most do not stand in the historic succession. The (Lutheran) Church of Sweden is a notable exception.
During the first five days of the consultation in Niagara Falls, the 34 participants discussed papers on the New Testament, the early church and on what the churches may require to carry on their mission in the 21st century. Symposiums dealt with the ministry of oversight in relation to the ministry of the whole people of God and with what needs to be reformed in present expressions of episcopal ministry. The question of episcope was approached from the perspective of the church's mission. Participants came from Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe and North America.
The remaining five days saw members of the Continuation Committee sifting through the data and ideas which had emerged in the larger consultation and undertaking a first draft of an agreed statement. It is hoped that the completed statement can come to the attention of the world's Anglican bishops when they assemble next summer for the Lambeth Conference. The statement would also come before the Eighth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation early in 1990. These international bodies are expected to transmit it to their national and regional constituencies for study and possible action. In both Lutheran and Anglican communions, final authority rests in regional and national judicatories.