Lutheran-Episcopal Committee Shapes Final Text of Proposal for Full Communion
Episcopal News Service. November 7, 1996 [96-1608]
(ENS) After nearly 30 years, three official dialogues, and innumerable articles and presentations, the most important preparation for next summer's vote on full communion between Lutherans and Episcopalians may prove to be an intense four-day meeting of the committee responsible for the final version of the Concordat of Agreement.
In response to reactions from across both churches, the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee met at a rural retreat center in Indiana October 31-November 3 to take a close look at reservations about the proposal. Most of them were from Lutheran bishops.
How well they heard and responded to the concerns from both churches could well determine whether the Concordat, which draws the denominations into an ecumenical relationship, will pass. The committee members left their meeting feeling satisfied with the painstaking work they had done in their review of every word, every line, and every footnote.
With what sounded like a sigh of relief, Bishop Edward Jones of Indianapolis, the Episcopal co-chair of the committee, said after the final session, "This committee accomplished a tremendous amount in responding to concerns from both churches. What we now present isn't substantially altered but the changes should address those concerns."
The document now goes to the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations of the Episcopal Church for response. Both churches will vote on the Concordat at their national conferences next summer in Philadelphia.
Several serious reservations emerged from a recent meeting of the ELCA's Conference of Bishops, held jointly with the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania (see ENS/October 17).
Jones and the Lutheran co-chair, the Rev. Richard Jeske of California, agreed that the questions were thoughtful and deserved the committee's most careful attention. "While no one challenged the goal of full communion, bishops from both churches asked for clarification of several matters," Jeske observed.
For example, if approved, the Concordat calls for immediate recognition and interchangeability of clergy and would require the presence of both Lutheran and Episcopal bishops at future consecrations so that, over time, Lutherans would join Episcopalians in the "historic episcopate," tracing the episcopal office back to the early church.
To make that possible, however, both churches are making concessions. Episcopalians would suspend a requirement that only priests ordained by bishops within the historic episcopate are allowed to preside at the Eucharist in Episcopal churches.
Lutherans would agree to elect future bishops for life -- although they would continue to be elected to six-year terms -- and require that they conduct all future ordinations of clergy. Yet Lutherans have made it clear that, by agreeing to the historic episcopate, that "does not mean some additional requirement since, for Lutherans, it is enough to agree on the Gospel," as ELCA Bishop H. George Anderson said at the Poconos meeting.
The ELCA has been developing its understanding of ministry since it was formed nine years ago. Lutherans do not ordain to three distinct orders, insisting that there is only one ordained ministry. At the joint meeting of bishops, the Lutherans asked that the Concordat "allow an interpretation of ministry that recognized where Lutherans are at this point."
In a major addition to the text of the Concordat, the committee reached back to the report from the third round of dialogues between the churches to describe the theological consensus that lies at the core of the proposals for full communion. The Concordat is possible, the committee members noted, because Lutherans and Episcopalians agree on the essentials of the faith -- on scripture and the historic creeds, the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, the nature of the church, and even that "a ministry of pastoral oversight (episkope), exercised in personal, collegial and communal ways, is necessary to witness to and safeguard the unity and apostolicity of the church." The liturgies of both churches are also quite similar, they pointed out.
Despite some differences in the understanding of ministry, especially of how bishops function within the total ministry of the church and the relationship of three orders of ministry, the revised Concordat stresses agreement that "ordained ministries are given by God to be instruments of God's grace...." It calls for continued study of the diaconate and how it relates to other ministries. "The role of deacons is not ecumenically divisive," said Prof. Walter Bouman of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, who helped draft the Concordat. He said that the role of deacons is "one of those muddled areas," not very clear in either church.
As Lutheran theologian and historian Martin Marty reminded the joint meeting of bishops, "It's the mission, stupid." He challenged them to move beyond "issues that do not make much difference" in the lives of church members and to keep "Christ's mission to a suffering humanity" at the center of cooperation between the two churches.
In what may be the most significant improvement in the text of the Concordat, the committee made a stronger connection between the proposals for full communion and the mission of the church, contending that "our search for a fuller expression of visible unity is for the sake of living and sharing the gospel."
Emphasizing that both churches have gifts they bring to what has been called a "spiritual marriage," the introduction also states, "Our churches have discovered afresh our unity in the gospel and our commitment to the mission to which God calls the church of Jesus Christ in every generation. Unity and mission are organically linked in the Body of Christ, the church."
Whatever the fate of the proposals for full communion, "If it hadn't been for the joint meeting of bishops we would be in trouble with the Concordat today," Jones said at the beginning of the Indiana meeting. The opportunity to air concerns, and to know that those concerns had been heard, was crucial, he said. As a result, "We are much closer to acceptance than we were a month ago," before the meeting of bishops.
Dr. Darlis Swan, associate director of ecumenical relations for the ELCA, said that she observed a "180 degree turn during the five days" that the bishops met together. She attributed the change to a realization that "the mission of the church was at stake."
Swan expressed fears, however, that the proposals are still encountering "indifference, misunderstanding and suspicion" when discussed at the local level. She urged the committee to "remain true to the process" that produced the Concordat after decades of official dialogue but also to remain flexible enough to "send a signal to our bishops that you have listened to their concerns."
"This committee has itself demonstrated the honesty and openness that characterizes the spirit of our growing relationship," said the Rev. David Perry, ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Church. "The promise of the Concordat will be realized in this same spirit."
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