International Voices Stress Importance of Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat
Episcopal News Service. October 17, 1996 [96-1580]
(ENS) As a strong reminder that the world is watching whether the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America can move into full communion, international voices joined the conversations at the joint meeting of Lutheran and Episcopal bishops.
Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey praised the ecumenical effort represented by the Concordat, which he said offers the world a much-needed example.
"From the United States, you are sending a message to both the Lutheran and Anglican communions that different ways of living together are possible; and we must seek them," he said. "It is possible to go one step further, from denominational co-operation to a life of common fellowship, decision-making and oversight."
Noting that "our traditions are both 'reformed' and "catholic,'" Carey reminded the Lutheran and Episcopal bishops that "the ironic fact about division is that prolonged separation often leads to us overlooking the considerable body of faith, history and life we already share."
He warned that apathy and suspicion still may stand in the way of adoption of the Concordat, but urged the bishops to "ask the 'missionary question': Do our denominational divisions present the best possible witness to our Lord? Can churches preach a gospel of reconciliation as long as they remain so clearly unreconciled?"
While different from the Concordat in some significant ways, the Porvoo Agreement signed between the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches and the Anglican churches of the British Isles makes a similar statement about the ecumenical movement itself, Carey said.
The agreement is based on the premise, he said, that "the will to go on in the ecumenical movement with many partners and many activities, however fragile, is a sign to Christians themselves and to the world that we do actually believe that there is a better and more reconciled way given by God in Christ."
The Concordat's ultimate goal of the "gracious gift" of unity, he concluded, is worth the struggle even if "decisions are made which mean that progress has to be slowed down to ensure that both churches are as convinced as they can be that full, visible unity is God's will now."
Recommending an approach of "caution and courage," Carey said, "We should never apologize if we feel in our bones that there is still work to be done, relationships to be forged, church members still to be convinced." At the same time, "let us be courageous in this pursuit," he said. "For courage, to paraphrase Mark Twain, is not the absence of fear, but the resistance to fear, the mastery and persistence in fear."
Clearly there is still work to be done, he said. "There may be hesitations, but are they sufficiently large to stop the process?" he asked. "I don't think they are."
Failure to approve the Concordat, "will lead to a great feeling of disappointment around the world," he said. "A lot is at stake because it impinges on other dialogues."
German Lutheran theologian Gunther Gassman also stressed that the Concordat could offer a critical boost to counteract "a certain ecumenical timidity, a tiredness which... which is the result of the success of the ecumenical movement." With advances accomplished on many fronts, "there is a certain lack of enthusiasm," he said. The Porvoo Agreement among Anglicans and Lutherans in northern Europe and the Concordat could "have a signal importance to show that the movement is moving on."
Like Carey, he observed that both Porvoo and the Concordat have drawn on decades of Lutheran-Anglican dialogue.
"There is a deeper relationship, a deeper bond between these two inter-related efforts towards closer Anglican-Lutheran communion," he said. "They are parts and expressions of the movement of two Christian world communions towards communion. They are interconnected parts in God's history with these two churches."
Greater cooperation around mission would not result from full communion, he said, because "that could be done already now and is done in many ways." The new relationship, however, could provide "a challenge towards cooperation and common mission," he said. "It's no longer optional."
Given the long process of three separate rounds of Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogues, which ran from 1969 to 1991, "the Concordat is without question the most thoroughly prepared Anglican-Lutheran proposal -- which does not mean that there may not be a few weak points."
One weak point, Gassman maintained, was that the agreements achieved in past dialogues -- especially about full recognition of each other's orders of ministry -- are "not sufficiently and coherently enough" summarized in the Concordat. "This could easily lead to misunderstanding, misinterpretation and rejection in the decision-making process," he said. He suggested revision of a few paragraphs that would "not introduce new material, but re-organize and re-state existing agreements and convergences."
By establishing full communion between two churches that exist in the same geographical area, the Concordat differs from the Porvoo Agreement, "which is conditioned, to a certain degree, by the specific history and situation of the Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and the Baltic states," Gassman added.
Because of the geographic proximity of the two denominations in the United States, "the challenge and opportunity would be to make full communion a normal, day-to-day reality," he said. "This must not necessarily be expressed by a plethora of joint activities and projects, but first of all by a new and mutual awareness of the people in the churches that they belong together. And when they belong together more visibly than before as members of the one body of Christ, they will live in a new spiritual relationship of mutual care and common praise."