CCM Mirrors Original Attempts at Full Communion
Episcopal News Service. July 19, 2000 [GC2000-097]
David Skidmore, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Chicago
(ENS) The Called to Common Mission (CCM) document adopted by General Convention is a successor to the original Concordat of Agreement that the Episcopal Church approved overwhelmingly, but which was narrowly defeated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1997.
Both documents set the same conditions for full communion: recognition that both the Lutheran Augsburg Confession and The Book of Common Prayer contain "the essentials of the one catholic and apostolic faith," a common understanding of baptism, Eucharist and the authority of Scripture; and a full acknowledgment of the authenticity of each church's ordained clergy.
The major difference between the two is simplification of language in CCM, an attempt to address Lutheran objections, and a clarification of the Lutheran understanding of the three-fold ministry. The ELCA ordains to a single order of ministry. Though not required to ordain diaconal ministers under the CCM, the ELCA agrees to continue exploring that question.
The acceptance of the historic episcopate, in which bishops are understood to be linked in a succession to the early church, has been the chief hurdle during three decades of Episcopal-Lutheran dialogue.
While bishops have been a staple in the Scandinavian and some German Lutheran churches, they are a relatively new experience for the main body of American Lutheranism. In the ELCA -- formed in 1988 from a merger of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, the American Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church in America -- bishops are installed for six-year terms and return to being pastors once they serve out their terms. When the agreement takes effect January 1, 2001, however, the ELCA will revise its practice to ensure that all bishops are installed through the laying on of hands by at least three bishops already part of the historic episcopate.
In addition, CCM pledges to have a bishop "regularly" preside and participate in the ordination of all clergy. The addition of the word "regularly" was one of three amendments added during the ELCA's debate on CCM in 1999, and one intended to allay concerns of Lutheran pastors. According to the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, which authored the General Convention resolution (A040) adopting the CCM, the use of the word "does not imply the possibility of planned exception but allows for pastoral discretion in emergencies."
The main impact of CCM will be the interchangeability of clergy. Episcopal priests might be allowed to serve ELCA congregations, and ELCA pastors will be able to do the same for Episcopal congregations. In both instances the clergy will be required to function in ways consistent with each church's doctrine, discipline and worship.
In cases where clergy agree to a long-term ministry in a congregation of the other denomination, they must transfer their residency to the diocese or synod they serve and make a vow of conformity to that church's doctrine, discipline and worship. For an Episcopal priest serving a Lutheran congregation this means reading and accepting the unaltered Augsburg Confession, while an ELCA pastor called to an Episcopal congregation must conform to the Book of Common Prayer.
The CCM's provision for the temporary suspension of preface to the ordinal in The Book of Common Prayer is to allow the full recognition of the ministry of present ELCA pastors who may choose to lead Episcopal congregations even though they have not been ordained through the laying on of hands of a bishop in the apostolic succession -- a requirement in Anglican polity dating back to 1662. These clergy will be allowed to serve as rectors and vicars of Episcopal congregations without any reordination. The temporary suspension applies only to ELCA clergy. Clergy of Reformed churches in communion with the ELCA will not be permitted to serve in Episcopal congregations.
A joint commission, accountable to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly and the Episcopal Church's General Convention, will be appointed by the two presiding bishops this fall to implement the agreement.