Lutheran and Episcopal Clergy in Missouri Discuss Implications of Full Communion
Episcopal News Service. March 20, 1992 [92074]
A year after release of a Concordat of Agreement that could lead to full communion between Lutherans and Episcopalians, clergy of the two churches have begun to discuss practical implications of the historic agreement.
A group of clergy and bishops met at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, for example, to hear presentations from two theologians who were part of the official dialogue.
Dean William Petersen of Bexley Hall in Rochester, New York, said that the Episcopal Church's belief that bishops continue in apostolic succession is important because it guards the faith. In the Concordat, the Episcopal Church agrees, however, to temporarily suspend its requirement dating back to the 17th century that all deacons, priests, and bishops be ordained by bishops who are part of the historic episcopate. The suspension will remove an obstacle to full communion with Lutherans, Petersen observed.
Dr. Walter Bouman of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, said that the Reformation in England was not anti-Catholic but anti-papal and that English reformers were in close contact with reformers on the European continent. Most Lutherans eliminated bishops because they too often acted as temporal rulers and abused their authority, although the Swedish and Finnish churches maintain apostolic succession, Bouman said. "The Kingdom of God is in your midst. The Lord has risen. Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from the dead. The starting point is with the end -- the Resurrection of Jesus."
If the historic episcopate is an obstacle to unity, then it should be reexamined, Episcopal Bishop John Buchanan of West Missouri said in response to the theological presentations. Buchanan expressed regrets that the movement toward full communion had been so slow, pointing out that the 1886 Lambeth meeting in Chicago reached out an open hand to other Christian bodies eager to restore Christian unity.