Episcopal Delegates Issue COCU Caution
Episcopal News Service. January 31, 1980 [80028]
NEW YORK -- The Consultation on Church Union has forwarded a statement on the nature of ministry to its member denominations that is likely to come under cautious scrutiny in the Episcopal Church.
The statement -- hammered out at a Jan. 22-24 meeting in Cincinnati -- is the latest chapter in the Consultation document, "In Quest of a Church of Christ Uniting," and lays out a concept of ministry for the proposed merged church which both includes a function of episcopacy and recognizes lay ministers. The ten member denominations are asked to study and respond to the document by December, 1981.
The Episcopal Church delegation, led by the Rt. Rev. John M. Krumm, Bishop of Southern Ohio, joined the other members in the unanimous vote for the document but made it clear in statements to the Consultation executive committee that the questions of orders of ministry and the breadth of ecumenism were not fully answered by this paper.
A problem COCU had to overcome in agreeing on a common form of ministry was that some of its member churches have bishops and some do not. The discrepancy has been handled by noting that all the churches have offices of administration and oversight which are similar to those of a bishop even if not described by that title, and this is one concept about which the Episcopal delegation had reservations.
The paper asserts that "bishops are baptized members of the people of God who have been ordained to preach the Word, preside at the Sacraments, and administer discipline in such a way as to be representative pastoral ministers of oversight, unity, and continuity in the church."
It suggests that the role of bishop "will perhaps be different from that now known in any of the uniting churches." At the same time, it expressed the intent that the proposed church's bishops "should stand in continuity with the historic ministry of bishops as that ministry has been maintained through the ages," and the church "will ordain its bishops in such a way that recognition of this ministry is invited from all parts of the Universal Church. "
In the statement presented to the executive committee, the Episcopal delegation noted a "welcome convergence with contemporary thinking in our Church about ministry. At the same time, the delegation sees important questions which we still must face in the Consultation and in our churches.
"Primary among the questions requiring future study and research is the divergence between the traditions expressed by the words 'orders' and 'offices' used of the ordained ministries of the Church. We propose that the sentences of Chapter 6 on 'Worship' be developed and carried into the discussion of 'Ministry' . . . clarifying the sacramental nature of the orders of ministry in relation to the sacramental nature of the Church herself.
"The question of the sacramental nature of the Church and of the orders of ministry should also be considered in connection with the section in Chapter 3, on 'truly Catholic,' and what effects all this may have on our several churches' conversations with the Roman Catholic Church."
The Rev. William A. Norgren, associate ecumenical officer at the Episcopal Church Center, said the cautionary document was drafted and submitted immediately to help retain the vital openness of the ecumenical spirit.
"It isn't as if we had answers to these questions that we want to impress on people," Norgren said. "This statement of ours simply recognizes what has long been a troublesome area and urges that it not be overlooked to the detriment of the whole ecumenical movement, including the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. We are trying to ask the Consultation to grapple with its own statement of purpose of seeking a 'truly catholic, truly reformed and truly evangelical Church.'"
Other orders recognized in the document are presbyters ("baptized members of the people of God who have been ordained to serve among the people as ministers of Word and Sacraments") and deacons ("baptized members of the people of God who have been ordained to represent to this people its identity in Christ as servant in the midst of the world. ")
The section on deacons stressed that the diaconate should be "recognized as a distinctive ministerial task, and that it not be seen as an initial stage in the preparation of presbyters, even though some who have been ordained as deacons may later be ordained as presbyters."
Lay ministry was also described in the document. It said that "lay ministers are equipped with the gifts of the spirit, with the companionship of colleagues, and with the instruction, admonition, and support of the whole people of God. ... Formally appointed or not, lay ministers carry out their responsibilities in a variety of ways."
COCU's other member denominations are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, National Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church in the U. S., United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, and United Presbyterian Church.
The delegation of the Episcopal Church is grateful for the work of the theological commission on Chapter 7 on "Ministry" because of the progress it represents toward theological consensus. We find in much of this document a welcome convergence with contemporary thinking in our Church about ministry. At the same time, the delegation sees important questions which we still must face in the Consultation and in our churches.
Primary among the questions requiring future study and research is the divergence between the traditions expressed by the words "orders" and "offices" used of the ordained ministries of the Church. We propose that the sentences (on the bottom of page 30) of Chapter 6 on "Worship" be developed and carried into the discussion of "Ministry" (Chapter 7). This offers the possibility of clarifying the sacramental nature of the orders of ministry in relation to the sacramental nature of the Church herself.
An earlier discussion of such questions of order and office is found in the study of order and organization conducted by the World Council Commission on Faith and Order and the volume on Institutionalism edited by Walter Muelder.
The question of the sacramental nature of the Church and of the orders of ministry should also be considered in connection with the section in Chapter 3, on "truly Catholic" and what effects all this may have on our several churches' conversations with the Roman Catholic Church.