Title: Professor Calls for Rejection of "Milwaukee Proposals"
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
March 1, 2000
PROFESSOR CALLS FOR REJECTION OF "MILWAUKEE PROPOSALS"
00-047-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA)-- A member of the Lutheran drafting team that wrote
the current proposal for full communion between the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church called for
immediate rejection of proposals that could modify its implementation.
Dr. Michael Root, professor of systematic theology, Trinity
Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, made his views known in a strongly
worded Feb. 28 letter titled, "A Comment for the Bishops and Church
Council of the ELCA." The letter was shared with ecumenical officers of
the ELCA and The Episcopal Church, and ELCA News and Information.
Roots' comments were directed at the "Common Ground Resolution"
that emerged from a meeting of 18 people in Milwaukee, Feb. 16-18. Some
who attended favor the full communion proposal, "Called to Common
Mission" (CCM), and some oppose it. Seventeen of 18 supported the
resolution, which suggested "a possible path" in implementing CCM. The
suggestions, if incorporated in the ELCA constitution, may provide for
full participation in the ELCA for those who cannot accept the terms of
CCM.
The full communion proposal, "Called to Common Mission (CCM)," was
adopted 716-317 at the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Denver. CCM has
generated controversy in the ELCA, mostly over the ELCA's adoption of
the historic episcopate, a succession of bishops back to the earliest
days of the Christian church. Opponents of CCM say it changes the role
of bishops in the church and threatens Lutheran identity.
"The alleged 'Common Ground' proposals coming before the
Conference of Bishops and the Church Council are inherently misleading
and would both undermine the constitution of the ELCA and destroy our
ecumenical relations with the Episcopal Church," Root said. "It is of
utmost importance that they be rejected immediately."
The Milwaukee resolution's suggestions included:
+ the possibility that the ELCA Church Council consider a delay in
implementing CCM until after the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, to allow
for certain constitutional changes;
+ the possibility that ELCA pastors be recognized fully as pastors
even if their ordinations are constitutionally "irregular" because a
synodical bishop was not present;
+ the possibility that ELCA bishops be fully recognized as bishops
even if their installations are irregular under CCM, or
+ the possibility that the churchwide assembly create a non-geographic
synod within the ELCA "which may be out of conformity with
certain provisions of full communion agreements," the resolution said.
The Common Ground Resolution was sent for possible consideration
to the ELCA Conference of Bishops, the ELCA Church Council, ELCA
Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson and the WordAlone Network -- an
interim organization that serves CCM opponents.
Root said the balance of participants and their views in the
Milwaukee dialogue did not reflect the views of the ELCA as a whole.
"The impression cannot be avoided that what the opposition
to CCM could not achieve in an open debate, despite hundreds of
thousands of dollars spent on mailings and a sophisticated Internet
campaign, they are now seeking to achieve by clandestine maneuvers,"
Root's letter said.
Discussing changes in CCM will "justifiably upset" our ecumenical
partners, Root said.
To adopt the resolutions on ordination and installation of
bishops-elect "would be to say that every ordinand and bishop-elect
could specify whether or not they will be ordained or installed by the
rites approved by this church as a part of our ecumenical commitments,"
he said.
Root also said that giving ordinands the right to dictate whether
the bishop presides or doesn't preside abandons the essential notion
that it is the church's ordination.
Root expressed particular concern about the possibility of creating a
non-geographic synod which may not conform to certain
provisions of full communion agreements. Presently, the ELCA has full
communion agreements with the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the United
Church of Christ, the Reformed Church in America and the Moravian
Church.
"On what grounds would one then resist the inevitable calls for
other such synods for non-geographical synods which do, or do not,
ordain active gays and lesbians; for synods not in communion with some
or all of the Reformed churches; for synods which do not ordain women?"
Root asked in his letter. "Once we start down that road, where do we
stop? Are we a church or a federation of theologically defined interest
groups?"
Root also pointed out that CCM is a compromise proposal, the
result of revisions from the earlier Concordat of Agreement with the
Episcopal Church which failed at the ELCA's 1997 Churchwide Assembly.
CCM opposition leaders, including some participants in the
Milwaukee dialogue, "were explicit in their determination not to enter
into discussions of amendments to CCM prior to the Denver vote because
they thought they had sufficient votes to defeat it," Root said. "They
cannot now seek to amend CCM after its adoption."
Means should be found for an "amicable parting of the ways" if
opponents of CCM cannot live with the decision of the churchwide
assembly, he said.
"What should not be permitted is the implicit dismantling of the
ELCA," Root's letter concluded.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html
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