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Lutherans and Episcopalians Mark Milestone in Dialogue

Episcopal News Service. April 21, 1988 [88074]

NEW YORK (DPS, Apr. 21) -- "Today marks a significant milestone on the journey to which both of our churches have committed themselves," said Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church during an Episcopal-Lutheran worship service held at St. James Lutheran Church in Portland Ore., on April 12. The liturgy was concelebrated by Browning and Bishop Herbert Chilstrom, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The service was held during the Apr. 11-14 meeting of the National Workshop on Christian Unity, an influential ecumenical forum, in Portland. Episcopal ecumenical officers were meeting concurrently in the city.

The celebration in St. James Church preceded the official release of the text of Implications of the Gospel, the most recent document in the ongoing Episcopal-Lutheran dialogue. Browning and Chilstrom called attention to the sections of the document dealing with liturgical renewal, common education, shared leadership, and common work in evangelism organized around baptism. These areas of concern, the leaders said in their joint statement, "...if promptly implemented by our churches could hasten the day of full communion." Chilstrom offered the observation that "Christians are drawn to each other.... When they are separated...the whole body of Christ suffers."

At the news conference which followed the service and the announcement of the new document, many specific questions were asked of the members of the Episcopal-Lutheran dialogue. In response to questions about the discussion of homosexuality in Implications of the Gospel, Paul Erickson, retired ELCA bishop of the Illinois Synod, indicated that it raised thoughtful questions in this area in the context of stewardship and how people deal with gifts of God including the gift of sexuality. If homosexuality is a given, Erickson said, then questions need to be raised as to how to deal with that.

Implications of the Gospel also deals with the issue of wider participation of women in the church. Since both bodies ordain women, the issues discussed involve deepening involvement on many levels. The Very Rev. William Petersen, dean of Bexley Hall, Colgate Rochester Divinity School, the Episcopal seminary in Rochester, N.Y., affirmed that "...women are more and more fully participating in the church."

Browning and Chilstrom also identified further strengths of the document. Chilstrom observed that Implications of the Gospel points the way to Episcopalians and Lutherans improving relations with believers of the Jewish faith with whom both church bodies share a common heritage. Browning noted that the ongoing dialogue itself had produced a significant effect on the churches of the Anglican Communion as a model for their own ecumenical involvements in other parts of the world.

The next stage in the life of the document will be its consideration for affirmation by the ecumenical offices of the two churches. Implications of the Gospel will be available in printed form from Forward Movement Publications in the summer of this year.