Title: Lutheran Leaders Study Ecumenism
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 19, 1996
LUTHERAN LEADERS STUDY ECUMENISM
96-09-027-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 5.2 million members of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America are gearing up to make some major
decisions in 1997 about how they will relate to another 67.3
million Christians in the United States. The ELCA Church
Council, meeting here April 12-15, studied proposals regarding
closer relations with the Roman Catholic Church, Episcopal Church
and three Reformed churches -- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.
"The council began to take ownership of the decisions coming
before us in 1997 regarding the ecumenical proposals," said Kathy
J. Magnus, Denver, ELCA vice president and council chair. "The
council spent about five hours in conversation."
In 1997 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly will address proposals
for establishing full communion with the Episcopal Church and
Reformed churches and a proposal that the Lutheran and Roman
Catholic churches each declare the 16th-century condemnations
they leveled against each other on the doctrine of justification
no longer apply.
The ELCA Church Council is the church's chief legislative
body between biennial churchwide assemblies. At this mid-point
between assemblies the council was able to spend more time
discussing the future of the church, said Magnus, than voting on
business items.
ELCA Bishop H. George Anderson reminded the council that the
proposals do not require any churches to merge. "They ask that
we recognize in print what we probably all believe in our hearts
-- that we are not the only church body with the truth," he said.
"It sounds simple, yet the twists and turns of history have
carried us so far from one another that we don't recognize the
same faith in each other when we meet."
Full communion with the Reformed churches would complement
the ministry of the Lutheran church, said the Rev. Guy S.
Edmiston Jr., Harrisburg, Pa., bishop of the ELCA Lower
Susquehanna Synod and Lutheran co-chair of the Lutheran-Reformed
Coordinating Committee.
He summarized several decades of talks among the church
bodies and how they resulted in "A Common Calling" and "Formula
of Agreement" -- documents that outline the implications of full
communion between the Lutheran and Reformed churches.
Full communion between the Lutheran and Episcopal churches
would further the "interim eucharistic sharing" the bodies have
enjoyed for 14 years, said the Rev. Richard L. Jeske, pastor of
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Saratoga, Calif., and Lutheran co-
chair of the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee.
He traced 27 years of U.S. dialogues to documents defining
the Lutheran-Episcopal proposal -- "Toward Full Communion" and
"Concordat of Agreement." Jeske explained that the two churches
have never issued condemnations against one another.
The council heard a report from one of its members, Terry L.
Bowes, Longmont, Colo., who had attended a recent meeting of its
counterpart in the Episcopal Church -- the Executive Council. It
also welcomed as visitors the Rev. David Perry, ecumenical and
interfaith relations officer of the Episcopal Church, New York,
and the Rev. Sue Reid, canon for educational and spiritual
formation, Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.
The Rev. Daniel F. Martensen, director of the ELCA
Department for Ecumenical Affairs, reported on international
efforts to draft exact wording for the Lutheran-Roman Catholic
proposal, which will also be considered in July 1997 at the
Lutheran World Federation Assembly in Hong Kong.
The 37-member Church Council divided itself into five small
groups to discuss the "critical issues" of the ecumenical
proposals. The notes of their discussions were given to Bishop
Anderson, the ELCA's chief ecumenical officer.
"Most of the questions the council raised were with the
`nuts and bolts'" rather than with challenging whole documents,
said Magnus. Some of the questions that asked were: What will
happen if the 1997 assembly votes for the proposals? How will
this affect congregations? How will clergy transfer between
church bodies? How will discipline be carried out, if necessary?
The opposite concerns were also discussed, she said. "What
happens if indeed the 1997 assembly of the ELCA would vote these
recommendations down? What would that do to the ecumenical
relationships with these other church bodies?"
Council members expressed the need for similar deliberations
among the millions of Christians the decisions may affect, said
Magnus. "This is not an issue that a lot of people enter into
very easily, because it can be a very technical theological
discussion."
In business, the council elected Martensen as director of
the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs. He was associate
director for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue since 1988 and
had served as acting director since Oct. 31.
The council also elected 15 ELCA members to serve a four-
year term in the General Assembly of the National Council of
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.: ELCA Bishop H. George
Anderson, Chicago; the Rev. David Andert, Duluth, Minn.; the Rev.
James Echols, Philadelphia; Bishop Jon Enslin, Madison, Wis.;
Heidi Helgemo, Eagan, Minn.; the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida,
Elmhurst, Ill.; the Rev. Bonnie Jensen, Chicago; Brian King,
Dubuque, Iowa; Ryan LaHurd, Hickory, N.C.; the Rev. Barbara
Lundblad, New York; Mary Hull Mohr, Decorah, Iowa; the Rev.
Thomas Prinz, Alexandria, Va.; Desiree Quintana, Cambridge,
Mass.; Hazel Steward, Chicago; and the Rev. Stephen Youngdahl,
Austin, Texas.
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
