Now that the emotional flurry over the Lutheran rejection of the Concordat of Agreement has settled a bit, it may be possible to pause and see where the players are and how the long-term game is going.

European Anglicans and Lutherans continue to move steadily closer, and seem to be increasingly effective as a "bridge," or at least a cease-fire zone, between the Reformed/Presbyterian left wing of the Reformation and the Roman Catholic Church. (Witness: The Pullach Report, The Meissen Common Statement, The Porvoo Agreement, etc.). In North America this trend is reflected in Canada, where Anglicans and Lutherans are moving into full communion now. But in the United States, where we have a tradition of following at least a generation behind the theological and ecclesiological movements of Europe, things are different.

A few months ago the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was standing on the high middle ground between the Episcopal Church and the Reformed churches (Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.). In both ecclesiology and sacramental theology it was maintaining an influential mediating position. The ELCA itself, when it was formed a mere decade ago, was a composite of churches, some episcopal in tradition and some presbyterian, some formally liturgical and some not. Then came August and Philadelphia and the ELCA's decision to tumble deliberately to one side of the mountain. It chose to embrace in full communion three non-sacramental, militantly anti-episcopal, and anti-historical, reformed churches while rejecting such a relationship with the Episcopal Church. It rejected a sacramental relationship with us, not because of any omission, imperfection, impediment or heresy in our faith and practice, but precisely because we insisted on continuing the historic, orthodox, nearly universal Christian tradition of the episcopacy. The Lutherans chose to embrace in full communion three churches that very deliberately do not reverence Christ as objectively present in the Holy Eucharist and they rejected full communion with those of us who do. They abandoned the principle of the Augsburg Confession, that the traditional ministries of bishops might be recruited in the service of the gospel, and they joined in altar and pulpit fellowship with those who have for centuries repudiated as necessarily reprobate all episcopal ministries.

So the ELCA has changed its position. It no longer stands in the balance. Perhaps at heart it never did. The presumptions that were brought to the table as the Concordat was negotiated over the past number of years do not seem to be valid now. I refer to the presumption that the Lutherans were committed to the sacraments as means of grace, not merely signs, and a belief in the objective, sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I refer to the presumption that Lutherans are committed to an ecclesiology that respects apostolic tradition and sees the church as a continuing, visible organism, the corporeal "body of Christ," a communion, not just an assembly of believers.

At the very least, I think, we need some firm reassurance from the ELCA that these presumptions still exist before we can consider going forward with the Concordat, even if its Churchwide Assembly adopts it in 1999. We may be faced with the sad realization that the Lutherans, for all their theological sophistication, have no substantive ecclesiology.

The Concordat of Agreement was not worked out over the weekend by ecumenical politicians. It is not the pragmatic document of a committee. It is unflinchingly loyal to the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral. It was crafted over many years by some of the best theological minds of both communions. Its vision is drawn not only from Anglican and Lutheran theologians, but from others as well. If Lutheran politicians start tampering with the Concordat now, the silver cord will most certainly be loosed and the golden bowl broken.

As others have aptly pointed out, we, of course, need to reassure Lutherans in America that we are committed to the ministry of all the baptized and that we see holy baptism as the fundamental blessing and empowerment for ministry. We have not abandoned the apostolic and Reformation understanding of the priesthood of the people of God. Lay ministry is essential and fundamental in this church and lay persons exercise authority at virtually every level of this church's life: in parishes, dioceses, provinces, and at the national level. We also need to assure the Lutherans that we do not have and do not support the idea of an autocratic, imperial, episcopate. We grieve with them over the tragic and horrible experiences that many Germans and Scots had with bishops in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. But this was not our experience. We have been blessed, through the centuries, with long lines of devoted, compassionate and wise bishops. Bishops led the Reformation in England and our bishops in America have usually been good and faithful pastors to us. Our bishops are elected by the clergy and people and they are subject to the same discipline as the other clergy and laity. So our desire to retain the episcopacy is by no means a proclivity for autocracy or absolutism. It is a desire to affirm and retain the historical, continuing nature of the church and to promote unity and understanding among Christians in various places. Our desire is for good order and legitimate authority, not for tyranny.

When I presented resolutions A18,19 and 20 to the House of Deputies at General Convention in Philadelphia last July, I referred to our two churches, the Lutheran and Episcopal, as lovers who had discovered in one another something very lovable, some mutual values and some admirable differences, and that we could live and work and do mission together, remaining distinct from each other but highly compatible, like spouses in a healthy marriage. I feel now that, before the marriage could be consummated, our fiancee showed herself to be a rather different kind of person than she had appeared to be in our courtship. And, furthermore, she really does not know us well. Patience and understanding are gifts of the Spirit that we both need an abundance of now. o

The Rev. Canon David L. Veal is canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of Northwest Texas.