A new proposal is before us for establishing a relationship of full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA, at its convention in Denver [TLC, Sept. 5], voted to approve a document titled "Called to Common Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the Concordat of Agreement," which offers new terms for entering into full communion.

It may be recalled that in 1997 the Episcopal Church voted in favor of the original Concordat of Agreement between our two churches, but that proposal proved unacceptable to the Lutherans. The new proposal contains what the ELCA referred to as "significant changes" from the original document. Before it can be implemented, it must be approved at the Episcopal Church's General Convention in 2000. In our opinion, the Episcopal Church should consider very carefully the differences between the first and second documents before voting in favor a second time. We believe also that the Episcopal Church should ask itself why this proposal is necessary.

What is the purpose of our entering into what the document refers to as "full communion"? The original Concordat cited an agreed statement between Anglicans and Lutherans on the meaning of this term. "Full communion" is a relationship in which the members of one church may receive the sacraments of the other; bishops of one church may participate in the consecration of bishops of the other; bishops, pastor/priests and deacons of one body may function liturgically and pastorally in congregations of the other; and there will be regular consultation and communication between the two churches.

The first and last are already true of the relationship between our two churches. Any Lutheran may receive communion in an Episcopal church and vice versa. Furthermore, the two churches are already engaged in consultation and also, in many places, joint ministry. So the only thing that the Concordat would add to this is the sharing of ordained ministries. The intention of the original Concordat was to enable this sharing.

Because ELCA bishops are not ordained in the historic episcopal succession which Anglicans share with Roman Catholics, Orthodox and some other Lutheran churches, the Concordat provided for three Lutheran and three Episcopal bishops to impose hands in all new Lutheran installations of bishops. The Concordat also declared that the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons would form the common pattern of ordained ministry (with future clarification of the role of the diaconate), and it declared that, in the future, Lutheran bishops would always preside at the ordination of new clergy.

Eventually, therefore, Lutheran and Episcopal clergy would be in the same historic succession and all would be fully interchangeable. Until that time, the Episcopal Church would temporarily waive, for Lutherans only, the requirement in the prayer book (Preface to the Ordinal, BCP page 510) that only people ordained by bishops in the historic succession may function as clergy. The offer in the original Concordat was that Lutherans would waive, for Episcopal clergy only, the requirement of subscription to the Augsburg Confession.

How does the new proposal, set forward in "Called to Common Mission," differ from the one which we approved in 1997?

First, the new proposal omits the original document's statement that "the threefold ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons in historic succession will be the future pattern of the one ordained ministry of Word and Sacrament." Instead it explicitly affirms that "the ordination of deacons ... by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is not required by this Concordat." The ELCA has lay persons who serve as "diaconal ministers," but they are not ordained. Under the new proposal, will the ELCA regard Episcopal deacons as clergy? If not, doesn't that in part defeat the goal of the original Concordat, which was ministerial interchangeability?

Next, the original Concordat stated in its preamble that it should be subject to a simple up or down vote, with no subsequent amendments. However, the Daily Lutheran, the official journal of the Churchwide Assembly, stated that subsequent to its passage, "Called to Common Mission" was amended so as to allow for the absence of a bishop at ordinations in "emergencies." This provision raises the serious possibility of non-episcopal ordinations of ELCA clergy continuing even if the Episcopal Church votes in favor of the new proposal. This completely undercuts both the spirit and the letter of the original Concordat.

The original Concordat recognized that entering into full communion was a process which would not be complete until all ELCA bishops were in the historic succession. A joint commission was to be established to oversee ecumenical, liturgical and doctrinal questions. This commission would then publicly announce when the process of entering into full communion was complete. This latter function of the joint commission is nowhere mentioned in the new proposal. In fact, the new document explicitly states that the two churches have different views of when full communion will be established. For the Lutherans, full communion will happen immediately, whereas for Episcopalians it won't happen until we share the historic episcopate. It was part of the agreement, however, that after all bishops were in the historic succession, all ELCA clergy would finally come to be in the historic succession, since only bishops would ordain. But with the new ELCA amendment, it is conceivable that we could end up sharing bishops in the historic succession but not pastors. In order to maintain interchangeability of clergy, we would then have to make our suspension of the Preface to the Ordinal permanent. And so, without any consultation, we would find that we had changed our own polity.

Since the only component of full communion that our churches lack is interchangeability of ministries, and since the changes to the Concordat call into question that full interchangeability, we believe that the Episcopal Church should not vote in favor of the new proposal at next summer's General Convention. It would probably be best not to vote on it at all, because the Episcopal Church already has voted in favor of a proposal which the ELCA rejected. The document that the Episcopal Church approved explicitly ruled out any amendment or alteration of the original agreement. We suggest that "Called to Common Mission" be offered to the Episcopal Church as a discussion document, involving our ecumenical partners in other churches, especially the Roman Catholics and Orthodox, who have accorded the threefold ministry the same importance that we have. A resolution of the ELCA Church Council described "Called to Common Mission" as a "basis" for full communion. Let it form the basis for discussion and reflection on its ecclesiological implications, with the possibility of introducing a revised proposal at General Convention in 2003.

If there must be a vote on "Called to Common Mission" at next year's convention, then we suggest that the Episcopal Church should follow the ELCA lead and, if the proposal passes, amend it. While acknowledging the full authenticity of ELCA clergy within their own denomination, the Episcopal Church should grant a waiver from the Preface to the Ordinal only to those ELCA clergy who are non-episcopally ordained before the Concordat comes into effect. This will avoid the possibility of the suspension of the Preface to the Ordinal becoming permanent. In addition, the Episcopal Church should pass an amendment making it clear that diaconal ministers in the ELCA (who are not ordained) may not exercise liturgical functions reserved in our liturgy to ordained deacons or assisting presbyters. o

The Rev. Roderick Thompson is vicar of St. Cyprian's Church, San Francisco. The Rev. Armand Kreft is vicar of Holy Innocents', San Francisco.