Diocesan Ecumenical Officers Discuss Proposals for Full Communion with Lutherans
Episcopal News Service. May 23, 1996 [96-1477]
(ENS) As the Episcopal Church prepares to decide next summer on full communion with the Lutherans, the church's top ecumenical officer told his colleagues at their annual meeting that "the Spirit is moving in some surprising and profound ways."
Calling the Concordat of Agreement between Episcopalians and Lutherans "one of the most important decisions our church has faced for years," the Rev. David Perry told the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) that he is "excited and enthused" by the "growing and healthy interest" in the proposals at all levels in the church. EDEO met in the context of a National Workshop on Christian Unity in Richmond, Virginia, May 6-9.
Among the signs he shared with participants were studies of the proposals among seminarians, wider distribution of study resources in the dioceses, and joint meetings of clergy and even delegates to the conventions of both churches that will make the decision next summer.
"We face an unprecedented moment in the history of the ecumenical movement in the United States," Dr. Darlis Swan, ecumenical officer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said during a plenary discussion of a variety of ecumenical proposals. The ELCA will act on a similar proposal with several Reformed churches and a possible joint declaration with the Roman Catholics on the issue of justification.
In comparing the different proposals, Dr. Michael Root of the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France, asked whether "these new relationships lead to renewal throughout these churches." He contended that, as the proposals move forward, "our churches will become a laboratory for testing the convergence on unity that we have achieved." Only by living out the proposals "will we be able accurately to gauge how far we have come on our pilgrimage -- and how far we still have to go. Communion is a lived reality and life itself will need to test the proposals if they are adopted."
Speaking from a European context, Dr. Mary Tanner of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity said that the proposals "mark a new and very hopeful phase" in the wider ecumenical movement. Yet she warned against easy comparisons between the European and American proposals because of differences in size and diversity, as well as cultural and political factors.
The ecumenical proposals, Tanner observed, are part of "an intricate web of Christianity around the world," parts of a similar story. "The full communion you seek is bound to that wider unity and belonging" and "should challenge our narrow parochialism" at all levels.
Tanner expressed reservations over what she perceived as attempts to "justify parallel ecclesiastical structures" as churches seek a common life. "Shouldn't we risk the unfolding, blossoming of new structures to challenge denominationalism?" she asked. She pointed to what she called "a costly unity of giving up part of our identity," suggesting that Europeans seem more realistic about seeing ecumenical agreements as steps on the way to unity.
Tanner reported on the acceptance of a "Common Statement" among 12 Anglican and Lutheran churches in northern Europe for their own unique ecumenical cooperation. In the face of a resurgence of nationalism in Europe, with its "dangerous and divisive" undercurrents, agreement is based on what she called "common consciousness of mission and ministry."
The agreement, named for the Finnish city where it was signed, addresses missionary challenges in a reordered Europe. "The missionary dimension infuses the whole statement," Tanner said. "Strong common structures are essential" to a common ministry, she added, and representative councils will meet every two years to shape that mission.
After tracing 30 years of dialogue that led to the Concordat, Dean William Peterson of Bexley Hall in Rochester, New York, said that "Lutherans are being asked to do some remarkable things -- and many of them are concerned about losing their identity."
Speaking to a joint meeting of Episcopal and Lutheran ecumenical officers, Peterson dismissed allegations that the proposals represent a kind of "Cuisinart ecumenism." He said that the Concordat calls for "a whole new relationship between churches, a shared intent to mission at all levels." Both churches will be "risking something new for the sake of the Gospel."
"Full communion offers us a different possibility," added Prof. Walter Bouman of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He and Peterson have been speaking about the Concordat with groups throughout both churches.
Bouman pointed out that the "impasse on ministry proved more difficult than we had imagined," with Episcopalians insisting on the historic episcopate as a non-negotiable component of communion with other churches. The impasse was broken when the third dialogue found a way based on a common understanding of "apostolicity" as a way of authenticating the ministry of both churches. Lutherans will gradually adopt the historic episcopate as bishops of both churches jointly consecrate all bishops in the future. "The presence of bishops is an act of communion with each other," Bouman said. "The Concordat would be a catalyst for our structures to be signs of unity and community."
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