The National Workshop on Christian Unity, "Turn to God: Rejoice in Hope," met April 27-30 in St. Paul, Minn.

The Rt. Rev. James L. Jelinek, Bishop of Minnesota, was the officiant at the opening worship at Luther Seminary, and Bishop April Ulring Larson of the LaCrosse (Wis.) Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was the preacher.

The convention's keynote speaker, Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, spoke on the current state of the ecumenical movement. While he cautioned that he expected no major worldwide ecumenical breakthrough before the millennium, he emphasized that "I have a conviction that the Holy Spirit can do things very abruptly and unexpectedly."

Archbishop Weakland said he discerned a two-fold movement in the culture which is moving toward a global economy, yet also searching for individual identity.

The Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers network (EDEO) met concurrently with the national workshop. The Rev. Canon David Perry, ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church, reported on the state of dialogue with Roman Catholics, the ELCA, Moravians and United Methodists. He noted an Orthodox presence at the service of investiture for Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and said the Orthodox would soon be resuming dialogue with the Episcopal Church.

EDEO participants spent considerable time discussing "Called to Common Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the Concordat of Agreement."

Bishop Steven Ullestad of the ELCA's Northeast Iowa Synod explained the process by which Lutherans can continue to revise the document in consultation with the Episcopal Church's drafting team before ELCA delegates vote on the proposal at the 1999 Churchwide Assembly in Denver.

While some EDEO members expressed anxiety about possible revisions on the floor of the Churchwide Assembly, there was general approbation for the current revision [TLC, May 3].

"Where the document has been revised, it has been improved," said the Rev. John Klein, ecumenical officer of the Diocese of Eau Claire.

At a luncheon involving Episcopal and Lutheran ecumenical officers, the Rev. David Tiede, president of Luther Seminary, expressed opposition toward the historic episcopate on the part of Lutherans coming from some of the Scandinavian pietistic traditions.

A Lutheran-Episcopal Eucharist was celebrated at St. Clement's Church, with Bishop Jelinek as the celebrant and ELCA Bishop Mark Hansen of St. Paul the preacher.

The Most Rev. Alex Brunett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, was the speaker at the Episcopal-Roman Catholic luncheon and commented on Anglican orders.

"We have to heal our wounds from the past if we're going to open ourselves to a new millennium," he said. "It's been a devastating century in which we've done terrible things to one another in the name of religion."