Title: North American Lutheran-Moravian Full Communion
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 4, 1996
NORTH AMERICAN LUTHERAN-MORAVIAN FULL COMMUNION (81 lines)
96-08-026-AH
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (ELCA) -- A commission of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Northern and Southern
Provinces of the Moravian Church in America recommends that the
two church bodies establish full communion by the year 2000.
The commission met at Moravian Theological Seminary here March
23. The recommendation, included in a report called "Following
Our Shepherd to Full Communion," follows five years of dialogue.
Full communion does not mean institutional merger; rather,
it includes mutual recognition of sacraments and ministries, the
exchangeability of clergy, and a commitment to common evangelism,
witness and service, according to the Rev. Daniel F. Martensen,
Chicago, acting director of the ELCA's Department for Ecumenical
Affairs.
The ELCA is made up of more than 11,000 congregations in the
United States and Caribbean. The Moravian Church in America
encompasses about 150 congregations in the United States and
Canada. Its population is concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic
states, North Carolina and the Upper Midwest, areas where ELCA
members also live in large numbers. The Moravian provinces in
Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean are autonomous and have not
participated in the dialogue.
Because the Moravian Church is a global denomination,
Moravians are in close contact with Lutherans in various parts of
the world. Several of the nineteen provinces of the worldwide
Unitas Fratrum (Moravian Church), including one in South Africa,
are also member churches of the Lutheran World Federation.
The commission's report includes a historical survey of
relationships and cooperation between the two churches, a summary
of the theological perspectives they share, as well as those on
which there has been disagreement and tension in the past, and a
description of areas in which the two traditions can complement
as well as challenge each other as they move into full communion.
The commission concluded that there are no church-dividing issues
between Lutherans and Moravians.
The report will be submitted to the two church bodies for
action. It is anticipated that the recommendations will be on
the agenda at the Moravian Provincial Synods of 1998 and the ELCA
Churchwide Assembly of 1999, which could officially declare full
communion between the two churches.
The goal of the proposed partnership is to enable Moravians
and Lutherans to carry out a more effective ministry locally,
regionally and on the national level. "Both of our denominations
face daunting challenges as we move into a new millennium," said
Martensen. "It is important that we face them hand in hand
rather than in isolation from each other. Lutherans and
Moravians have worked together in various parts of the world for
centuries. We now have the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel in
Word, Sacrament and action together at a critical point in the
life of our country and our churches."
The Moravian-Lutheran dialogue began with a conversation
between Martensen and Bishop Arthur Freeman of the Moravian
Church in March 1991. They urged their churches to enter into
formal discussion. Since then, the commission has met five
times. Major funding for the dialogue was provided by Augsburg
Lutheran Church, Winston-Salem, N.C. Members of the dialogue
team have produced study documents that formed the basis for
discussion.
Among the more difficult historical problems examined was an
encounter in 1742 between the Lutheran Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
and the Moravian Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. Both leaders
were intent on organizing the German-speaking Protestants in
colonial North America. Out of their conflict grew separate
church bodies and suspicion between the two traditions.
The commission determined that these old grudges no longer
constitute grounds for alienation and ecclesiastical separation.
The commission recommended that a joint coordinating committee be
formed to implement the full-communion proposal. The committee
will develop study materials to prepare Lutherans and Moravians
for their church bodies' entering into full communion. Local
Moravian and Lutheran congregations in various parts of the
country will undertake joint study, service and mission projects
in anticipation of the 1998 and 1999 official actions.
The Moravian co-chair of the commission was Freeman, retired
professor of New Testament at Moravian Theological Seminary; the
ELCA co-chair was the Rev. Walter H. Wagner, Christ Lutheran
Church, Allentown, Pa.
For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312)
380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia Christiansen,
Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956
