Title: Some Lutheran Educators Endorse 'Called to Common Mission'
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 15, 1999
SOME LUTHERAN EDUCATORS ENDORSE 'CALLED TO COMMON MISSION'
99-15-093-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The faculty of the Lutheran Theological
Seminary
at Philadelphia and the president of Lutheran Theological Southern
Seminary, Columbia, S.C., announced their support for "Called to
Common
Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the Concordat of
Agreement." CCM, for short, is a Lutheran proposal for "full
communion"
between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The
Episcopal Church.
"I urge the adoption, celebration and joyful implementation of
'Called to Common Mission' in response to the ministry of Christ's
grace
and love to us," the Rev. H. Frederick Reisz Jr., president of
Southern
Seminary, said April 7. "With confessing integrity, both the
Episcopal
Church and the ELCA together may now participate in a new way in the
power of a unifying gospel."
"We, the faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia, strongly encourage the ELCA Churchwide Assembly to adopt
CCM and forward it to the
Episcopal Church for its approval," the Philadelphia faculty said in a
unanimous statement April 6. The faculty includes 17 theological
professors.
A round of Lutheran-Episcopal dialogues that began in 1983
developed a proposal for full communion between the two churches, "The
Concordat of Agreement," and issued it in 1991. The Lutheran faculty
in
Philadelphia had also supported the Concordat.
A convention of the Episcopal Church approved the Concordat in
1997. The proposal failed to win a two-thirds majority of the ELCA
assembly that year by six votes. The assembly asked that the
Concordat
be revised, taking its debate into account and clarifying the
technical
language of the dialogue. CCM was issued in November 1998 as that
revision, and the ELCA Churchwide Assembly will vote on it this August
in Denver.
"A convocation on CCM and the evangelical office of bishop held
at
the seminary in December 1998 provided us with an opportunity to
examine
again the question of full communion with the Episcopal Church," said
Philadelphia faculty members.
"We confess that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God
for salvation. As Lutherans, our witness to this gospel is the
strongest and best gift we offer in any ecumenical conversation. We
believe that this agreement, too, will offer us new opportunities to
witness to that gospel with our Episcopalian brothers and sisters and
in
the world," they said.
The Philadelphia faculty highlighted five reasons for its
decision: witness to the gospel, unity of the church, full communion
between churches, a common confession of faith and practical matters.
"We believe that the level of cooperation between our two
churches
envisioned in CCM will enhance our witness to the gospel of Jesus
Christ
in North America," said the faculty. "We understand full communion to
be an expression of unity between two distinct churches, arising out
of
the real human need to order our churches to serve Christ's mission in
this world."
"We recognize that this agreement may mean that both churches may
need to accommodate certain aspects of their organizational life in
order to welcome fully their brothers and sisters in the other church
and to be welcomed by them. We do not fear these changes," said the
faculty. "The gospel, as witnessed to in the Lutheran confessions and
in our churches, remains pure and strong even when we change or
abandon
cherished practices and traditions."
The possible "need to accommodate certain aspects of their
organizational life" has been a point of debate in the ELCA.
Lutherans and Episcopalians agree on the doctrine of "apostolic
succession," an ongoing faithful proclamation of Christ; Episcopalians
bring to the relationship the "historic episcopate," a succession of
bishops as a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian
church.
CCM includes provisions for the ELCA to incorporate the historic
episcopate of the Episcopal Church.
"The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America agrees that all its
bishops chosen after both churches pass this Concordat will be
installed
for pastoral service of the gospel with this church's intention to
enter
the ministry of the historic episcopate," said the proposal. "The
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America agrees to make constitutional
and
liturgical provision that bishops shall preside and participate in the
laying-on-of-hands at the ordination of all clergy."
Reisz listed the reasons for his support of CCM in a series of
"because" statements.
"Because many Christians, including some Lutheran communions
throughout the world, have found the bishop's office and the 'historic
episcopacy' to be a testimony to penultimate unity, a witness to the
one
gospel, a sign of continuity with those who have gone before and a
discipline of salient oversight, we can rejoice in the possibility of
this sign locally and evangelically adapted," said Reisz.
"Because Christ is always ahead beckoning us into mission, we can
pray for grace to be led into unaccustomed forms of church life and
unexplored possibilities of mission which begin to gather the hue of
gospel faithfulness and the excitement of a common witness to the
world," he said.
EDITORS: The full text of "Called to Common Mission" is located at
http://www.elca.org/ea/proposal/text.html
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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