I have been spending recent Sundays at Lutheran churches. There are several reasons for this:

• In mid-1997 I will be one of those voting on an unprecedented proposal for full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
• While I have done a lot of ecumenical work, I know less about the Lutherans than I do about most other "mainline denominations."
• This is a good way for a retired bishop to stay out of his successor's hair and still worship God every Sunday in word and sacrament.
• Perhaps I can exercise a useful interpretive role, since the Lutherans have to approve the proposed Concordat of Agreement along with us. I am learning a lot about them and reflecting on my own Anglicanism at the same time.

To prepare for this process, I was in touch with Bishop Ralph Kempski of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod and with Bishop Ted Gulick, my successor as Bishop of Kentucky. Then I met with the ministerium of the ELCA in the Louisville area, which includes 18 churches. Early each week I call the pastor of the church I plan to visit, repeat that I am there to worship, not preach or be up front. I am willing to discuss the Concordat of Agreement with an adult class, however, if that would be helpful. It is in these classes that I am learning the most.

It is important that I say how very comfortable I am in the worship at ELCA churches. Their liturgy is about as similar to ours as is that of the Anglican Church of Canada, and more like ours than the Church of New Zealand or the 1662 Prayer Book of the Church of England. An Episcopalian knows what is going on at all times, and definitely leaves the church knowing that this was the Holy Eucharist. Vestments, readings, architecture and many hymn tunes are the same as ours.

There are differences. The most notable to me have been how very much of the service is sung and the fact that communion wine is administered in what many Episcopalians facetiously refer to as "little shot glasses."

Episcopalians have talked about church unity as though we really believed in it for more than 100 years - ever since the acceptance of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (BCP, p. 876). But other than a relationship with the Old Catholics, who have a similar commitment to apostolic succession, we have never been able to formalize a relationship of full communion with a partner, because of our insistence on bishops in the historic episcopate. Finally it seems that we have a real hope of doing something significant with a major church in this country, episcopally organized (with bishops), and with a similar commitment to continuity with the faith and practice of the apostolic church.

When the votes are finally taken in 1997 at our two legislative assemblies, a real sticking point for many people will be some of the technicalities that accompany the issue of bishops. We have some problems and so do Lutherans. Rather than pursue that issue, I will simply share a few other things that I am observing and learning as I visit these churches:

• Impressive two-year preparation for confirmation. They take it very seriously. Confirmation is conducted by the local pastor, not the bishop. It is solemnly done, not that different from our service, but the absence of the regally dressed bishop means more focus on the confirmands.
• There are deacons in the Lutheran Church, but they are not considered to be part of the ordained ministry.
• Bishops serve for an elected term and are considered accountable to the electorate. If not re-elected, they perform no further episcopal functions. They are primarily "overseers" (episkopoi) of their synods and, until recently, were not necessary for ordinations.
• Lutherans have a passion for the proclamation of the gospel, and their ultimate criterion seems to be "will it further the spread of the gospel?"
• The sign of unity for Lutherans is the Augsburg Confession, not their experience of common worship.
• Delightful children's sermons during the regular morning worship seem to be far more common among Lutheran congregations than Episcopal churches.
• ELCA synods are characteristically much larger than our dioceses. Consequently, bishops are spread very thin and seem distant to most Lutherans.
• While, in theory anyway, the "local church" for Anglicans is the diocese, the the basic unit for Lutherans is definitely the congregation.
• Lutherans never participated in COCU - the Consultation on Church Union - because they were involved in an internal "ecumenical movement" of their own, bringing several distinct Lutheran bodies in the U.S. together into one - the ELCA.
• What Episcopalians would call low church in an Episcopal congregation, among Lutherans is really a pietistic tradition. It was strong among the former American Lutheran Church congregations, many of which are more interested in relations with the Presbyterians and members of the United Church of Christ than with Episcopalians.
• At the same Church Wide Assembly when delegates are voting on full communion with the Episcopal Church, the ELCA will be voting on a similar relationship with the Presbyterians and with the UCC.

To test the validity of my observations, I checked them with a Lutheran pastor, who considered it a "pretty good analysis of who we Lutherans are." However, he thought I should add the following as Lutheran characteristics:

• "Lutherans tend to be less emotional and more practical and intellectual.
• "Lutherans tend to be more 'Lone Rangers,' more introverted - not huggy-feely.
• "Lutherans like traditional worship with only a few changes from time to time."

During a recent visit to Minnesota, in the heart of the former ALC stronghold, I was interested to see how different the worship would seem from what I experienced in Kentucky. The ministry of the word was quite recognizable, but it took longer than I was accustomed to. But then the ministry of the sacrament was dispatched in no more than 10 minutes, including communion of more than 50 people. The coffee hour, however, was an absolute clone of what you would find anywhere in our church. o

The Rt. Rev. David B. Reed is the retired Bishop of Kentucky.