Episcopalians and Lutherans Seek New Direction in Path Towards Full Communion
Episcopal News Service. September 26, 1997 [97-1965]
(ENS) In the wake of the decision by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) not to establish "full communion" with the Episcopal Church, leaders of both churches are searching for a new path toward the historic new relationship -- and trying to determine how to deal with the underlying issues.
At its General Convention in July, the Episcopal Church agreed to take steps toward full communion by an overwhelmingly majority. Meeting a month later in the same convention center in Philadelphia, the ELCA failed by only six votes to endorse the move. At the same time it voted by more than 80 percent to establish full communion with three churches of the Reformed tradition.
Even those who strongly opposed the Concordat of Agreement took little joy in the decision since more than 66 percent (684 to 351) of voting members to the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly voted in favor. In its closing hours, the assembly passed two resolutions by margins over 90 percent committing itself to vote again in 1999 after a period of mutual study.
An editorial in the Kansas City Star chided Lutherans for their decision. In a piece called "Counterpoint: Lutherans have some explaining to do," the paper described the background for the ecumenical decisions and then concluded, "The unity movement has been dealt a heavy blow. And it will be left especially to Lutheran opponents to explain why continued division makes more sense than finding common ground."
Opposition among the Lutherans centered around issues of ministry, especially the role of bishops and the inclusion of Lutheran bishops in the historic episcopate. A statement adopted by the faculty of the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, which had endorsed both the Concordat and the Formula of Agreement with the Reformed, said, "We confess that we took too much for granted that we all had a common understanding of the historic Lutheran conviction in favor of an episcopal order... As a result, we failed to engage seriously enough with Lutherans who believed that adopting the historic episcopate as described in the Concordat would have endangered the balance of authorities within the ELCA or called into question the authenticity of some current and past Lutheran denominational structures."
While both Episcopalians and Lutherans have bishops, for Lutherans they have not been an essential part of the tradition in this country. "Some American Lutherans, such as Norwegians settled in the Upper Midwest, bear the marks of having fled from oppressive bishops in Norway in the last century," noted the Rev. Charles Austin, a Lutheran pastor from New Jersey who is also a columnist. "They have deep-seated fears of hierarchy, and those old fears were expressed often in the six hours of debate on the proposal during the Philadelphia meeting." He said that "Lutherans were not willing to accept some ambiguity and move ahead," realizing that it would be "necessary to give up old prejudices and fears."
Others are arguing that most of the opposition is geographically based. Bishop Kenneth Olsen of the ELCA's Metro Chicago Synod said, "I have never seen, among the bishops, as much sorrow, anger and outward emotional response as I did after the Concordat was defeated. It was obvious," the bishop contended, "that the primary opponents were from the Upper Midwest synods and leadership of groups centered around Luther Seminary [in St. Paul] and its faculty."
In a lively on-line Internet meeting devoted to discussion of the Concordat, Lutheran participants expressed embarrassment and anger at the rejection. Some said it was not so much a commentary on the Episcopal Church as it was a failure of vision in the ELCA. "It was a Lutheran vs. Lutheran thing," a pastor from Massachusetts said, "a piece of unfinished business from the merger 10 years ago" that formed the ELCA from three predecessor churches.
Lutherans have also expressed shock and dismay at what they perceive as willful distortion of the Episcopal Church, describing it as "outright slander." One pastor said, "Where calumny and distortion were freely spread, where suspicion and contempt were encouraged and indeed used for political gain, there we are not merely speaking of honest difference of opinions."
Midge Roof of Indianapolis, president of the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers and one of the resource people at the ELCA meeting, said that she didn't recognize the Episcopal Church in some of the hearings and discussions. "In the debates and hearings, it seemed clear to me that our church was being misrepresented, even traduced. Anti-Concordat literature was distributed daily."
Roof was stunned by some of the rumors and willful distortions at the ELCA meeting. She heard, among other things, that women pastors would not be accepted by Episcopalians. Someone even asked her why Lutherans would want to be in full communion and let the Queen of England appoint their bishops -- and why Lutherans would want to surrender the right to choose their own parish pastors. She was told that the ELCA was a democratic church, not a hierarchical one.
A Lutheran bishop said that delegates told him that Episcopalians don't believe in the priesthood of all believers and that laity would no longer be allowed to assist with communion -- and that the real goal of the Concordat is creation of a "super church."
In early reaction, however, the path towards a positive response from the Lutherans is not clear. Some argue for a whole new document, which would mean another consideration by the Episcopalians. Others want a commentary, to clear up lingering misperceptions in the Concordat. Many argue that the two churches just don't know each other -- or themselves -- well enough. As one Lutheran pastor said, "How can we engage in ecumenical dialogue when we don't know what we are?" He said that it is important that the churches learn to deal with each other realistically at the local level and asked, "Can we do that before we move to round two? I don't want to go through the humiliation and embarrassment again."
Shortly after the vote, Bishop H. George Anderson of the ELCA said that, while Lutherans explored ways to live into full communion with the Reformed churches, "the situation with the Episcopal Church is both more urgent and less settled." He said that he was eager to meet with Presiding Bishop-elect Frank Griswold because "it is crucial to see what possibilities he is willing to entertain as we proceed to develop the revised text called for in the ELCA assembly action." He said that he hopes to have a text ready to share with the ELCA synod meetings next spring "and I have set December 1 as the deadline for deciding on a process and a timeline."
Griswold told the New York Times that the ELCA may need "to grow in cohesion a little more" before responding to the proposal for full communion. While stressing that "nothing is going to dampen my enthusiasm for full communion," he said that "there would be a reluctance to offer a new invitation without evidence that the Lutherans would respond positively."
The statement by the Lutheran Seminary faculty said that a decision in 1999 by the ELCA on the Concordat would be helped by "greater clarity in the text itself, by a stronger summary of the doctrines of the faith in which our 28-year dialogue has demonstrated our unity, and by a simplified commentary on the Concordat or any revised text of agreement that may facilitate further conversations and ecumenical understanding between the Episcopalians and Lutherans."
In a "Love Letter to the Episcopal Church," the Rev. Richard Jeske, Lutheran co-chair of the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee that prepared the final draft of the Concordat, said, "We love you because you are the ones who are making us look at our own heritage and are asking us to rediscover who we always have been and are" despite what he described as "family squabbles." [full text in Newsfeatures section.]
Asking for patience while the ELCA sorted out its ecumenical theology, Jeske said that he is convinced that "our bonds will be all the stronger for this interim, our mutual love will rest on even firmer foundation, and our readiness for mutual ministry will be affirmed."
Lutherans and Episcopalians on the local level seem determined to move ahead with cooperation, although some projected ministries won't be possible in the absence of interchangeable clergy. As Bishop Edward Jones of Indianapolis said at the press conference after the Lutherans voted, "Life will go on in the local churches" despite the disappointment.
Lutheran and Episcopal bishops in Virginia issued a joint pastoral letter to their clergy and congregations, expressing disappointment and pledging to continue to develop closer relationships.
"While we are disappointed at this delay in our journey together, our commitment is clear. We are determined to strengthen our joint witness and live more deeply our unity in Christ," the September 22 letter said. It also called on "those persons and parishes who have entered into covenants and joint ventures to continue their work."
Lutheran and Episcopal bishops in New Jersey, who are developing a joint camp and conference center, expressed a similar determination. "We have missed a wonderful opportunity to step out boldly," said Bishop Jack McKelvey of Newark, "but this will not stand in the way of our doing joint ministry on a diocesan level or a local level over the next several years." But the Rev. Lucinda Laird, an Episcopal rector in Teaneck who cooperates with a local Lutheran parish, said that she couldn't help wonder "what increased cooperation could have happened if the Concordat had passed."
Across the country others expressed uncertainty on how to encourage local cooperation. Small Lutheran and Episcopal parishes in Kentucky, for example, can't be served by clergy under provisions of the 1982 Interim Eucharistic Sharing agreement between the two churches, nor is it possible to begin joint congregations. Small Lutheran parishes in the Louisville area expressed hopes that the Episcopal diocese could help them. "The vote of the ELCA has hurt the mission of the church in Kentucky and will continue to hurt our mission," said the Rev. Bob Franklin, assistant to the Lutheran bishop.
Yet the two churches have built a substantial reservoir of cooperation and good will. "In the months ahead I hope that we in the Episcopal Church will continue to build on the very positive relationships that exist all over our two churches," the Rev. David Perry, the Episcopal Church's ecumenical officer in a letter to the church's bishops, said. After reminding them that the 1982 agreement "remains in place," he added, "Now more than ever, we can take the opportunities to worship and work together, to deepen our knowledge of one another, as a means to the unity we seek."