Lutheran and Episcopal Bishops Visit Nordic Countries to Report Progress of Dialogue
Episcopal News Service. January 11, 1991 [91003]
Edgar Trexler, Editor of The Lutheran
In a journey of historic international and ecumenical significance, the chief bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church traveled to England and Scandinavia together in December.
ELCA Bishop Herbert W. Chilstrom and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning made the trip to dramatize among Anglican and Lutheran leaders on two continents the two churches' increasing prospects for "full communion" (full mutual recognition and interchangeability of ministers, ministries, and sacraments).
Anglicans are the dominant faith group in England. Lutherans are by far the majority in the four Nordic countries visited -- Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
Winging 12,000 miles in 15 days, Chilstrom and Browning heard details of continuing discussions between the Church of England and Lutherans in the Nordic countries (including Iceland) and Latvia and Estonia.
When the marathon meetings ended in Helsinki, Finland, on December 14, Browning called the trip with Chilstrom "a foretaste of the feast to come in the church." Chilstrom promised "serious study" of recommendations of full communion, which are expected to be released in January by the U.S. Lutheran-Episcopal dialogue.
Both Chilstrom and Browning suggested that the dialogue report, which is expected to propose the sharing of clergy and intercommunion, could come to the 1994 Episcopal General Convention and to the 1995 ELCA Churchwide Assembly for final action. (The timing would allow the ELCA to act first on recommendations from its major study on ministry in 1993.)
Festive worship highlighted the ecumenical journey. Chilstrom and Browning were seated at the high altar of England's Canterbury Cathedral when Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie dedicated a memorial to one of his predecessors, the late Dr. Michael Ramsey.
In the Lutheran cathedral in Uppsala, Sweden, Browning led Sunday worshipers in the confession of sin. After noting that "our churches -- Lutheran and Anglican -- have still to find the way to accept one another as Christ accepted us," he said, "Bishop Herbert Chilstrom and I have come in penitence to witness to the growth of relationships between our two churches...as a contribution to the growing communion between the Lutheran Communion and the Anglican Communion in all parts of the world, and ultimately of the wider unity God wills.
"When Christ finds enough women, men, and children to join his prayer that we may all be one that the world may believe, then it will happen. Our present moment for confession is part of that. Let us therefore confess that we have sinned against God and our neighbor in thought, word, and deed by what we have done, and by what we have left undone."
Chilstrom preached at the service, noting that when his grandparents left Sweden, "little did they think that a grandson would come back someday and preach in this cathedral." Both Chilstrom and Browning assisted Church of Sweden Archbishop Bertil Werkstrom in distributing communion.
Discussions on ecumenical matters were dominated by questions related to the ordination of women and episcopal succession (the passing of authority in an unbroken line throughout the church's history by bishops ordaining clergy and consecrating other bishops by the laying on of hands).
Lutherans in all Nordic countries ordain women, as do the ELCA and the Episcopal Church. The Church of England does not ordain women to the priesthood. Anglican leaders in Canterbury noted that the church "cannot give more recognition to Lutheran women clergy in Nordic countries than it does to women priests in some churches of the Anglican Communion, which means that the Church of England does not recognize [female Lutheran pastors]."
Browning told Norwegian Lutherans that the Episcopal Church is in "impaired communion" with other Anglican churches since the U.S. church' has women priests and one female bishop. He added that he hopes for some change under Runcie's successor, Archbishop-designate George Leonard Carey, who favors the ordination of women.
In each Nordic country, Lutheran leaders appeared willing to wait for change in the Church of England; they do not intend to reverse their practice of ordaining women. Lutherans in Denmark have had women clergy since 1947.
Regarding episcopal succession, talks differed sharply from country to country. Sweden and Finland both have episcopal succession. Norway and Denmark, which do not, insist that their clergy ordinations are in no way incomplete or deficient because of their different traditions.
In the wake of the discussions, Chilstrom reflected on the upcoming recommendations from the U.S. Lutheran-Episcopal dialogue, which are likely to provoke lively debate in the ELCA. "My Lutheran roots mandate for me that succession can never be more than a sign of our faithfulness to the Gospel," the ELCA bishop said. "For us, word and sacraments are the essential marks of the church, but we have the evangelical freedom to decide whether the episcopal office would be useful to us."
Dr. William Norgren, ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Church and a participant in the trip, said the relationship with Lutherans is at "a turning point so we are explaining the situation to our partners -- in this case the Lutherans."
Browning acknowledged that it was "somewhat mind boggling to be in four countries where the majority of the people are Lutheran." More than 90 percent of populations in the Nordic countries belong to Lutheran churches. There are 700 Anglicans in Norway, 3,000 in Sweden, and small numbers in Denmark and Finland.
"It was a real sign of the Holy Spirit that closer relationships are happening in different places without any master plan by man or woman," Browning said. "I am envious of time, for I would like to see this happen on my watch."
"The trip has been terribly affirming, especially of the rightness of what we are doing," Browning added. "We take back a sense of blessing, of affirmation, of enthusiasm, of confidence in one another that we really are brothers and sisters in Christ."
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