ELCA NEWS SERVICE April 29, 2004 Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue Completes Round Ten 04-084-FI MILWAUKEE (ELCA) -- With a roll-call vote here on April 23, members of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the United States unanimously approved "The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries," a 69-page document. The document is the fruit of the dialogue's 10th round, explaining why both traditions view the roles of pastors and bishops and of congregations and dioceses differently, and offering a dozen recommendations for each church to benefit from the other's insights. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sponsored the 10th round of talks, which began in September 1998. The two traditions have been in formal dialogue in the United States since 1964. The document was finalized at the dialogue's meeting here April 22-25. It is to be made public May 5, when it is to be presented to the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the USCCB and placed on the Web sites of the respective bodies. "Koinonia" is an anglicized Greek word for "communion," which is used in the New Testament to designate the church's unity in faith, sacraments and decision making. "This is an exciting time for us, because the work of five and a half years on this 10th round of dialogue -- The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries -- has been completed," said the Rev. Charles H. Maahs, Lutheran co-chair and former bishop of the ELCA Central States Synod, Kansas City, Mo. People in Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations who receive the document will become reacquainted with the ground that has already been covered in the dialogue, Maahs said. For example, this round of the dialogue used the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, signed in 1999 by the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican, to explore "opportunities for agreement" in structures and ministries, he said. "One of the recommendations talks about Lutheran and Roman Catholic bishops working together more" and providing "opportunities for people in Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations to enter into study together," Maahs said. "This kind of recommendation will be refreshing and will make a big difference for our people as a step forward toward our goal of eventual full communion," he said. "If these recommendations are fully accepted and implemented, the average Catholic will see different things depending upon where they live -- depending upon the background and history of the location, the cooperation between the churches over the past decades," said Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Sklba of Milwaukee, Catholic co-chair of the dialogue. Sklba said he hoped Catholics everywhere would notice "a regular petition for unity at the prayers of the faithful at every Eucharistic celebration -- a constant prayer for the healing of the wounds within which we now live." He said he anticipated that Catholics and Lutherans would notice announcements in their church bulletins describing "mutual involvement in works of justice and charity in the neighborhood." "I also hope that regularly they will see reports that actions or teaching statements of our respective groups of bishops will give evidence of having been crafted together" or at least being produced by one group and given to the other for reaction or support, Sklba said. "It's those areas where Catholics and Lutherans hopefully will see a difference and a change," he said. In addition to approving the text of their report, dialogue members discussed possible topics for the next round of Lutheran- Roman Catholic talks. They decided to recommend "The Hope for Eternal Life" as the topic for the 11th round, which could include such topics as purgatory, prayer for the dead and indulgences. The next round could begin in 2005. Dialogue members discussed the publication of their report with supporting essays. Oct. 31, 2004, was the target date for the book's release. In celebratory worship the evening of April 23, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, welcomed the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, and the Rev. Paul W. Stumme-Diers, bishop of the ELCA Greater Milwaukee Synod, to the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Hanson preached, using The Church as Koinonia of Salvation as his text. "We are not yet one in the Eucharist as we are one in Baptism and one in the Spirit. That means we are wounded," Hanson said. "Why should we persist?" he asked. "So that all may know Christ and have life in his name." The theology department of Marquette University, Milwaukee, hosted an academic forum in which the faculty had an opportunity to study and critique the dialogue results. Two dialogue members made introductory presentations; Dr. Susan K. Wood, SCL, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minn., discussed the logic used in the dialogue report; Dr. Michael J. Root, associate in ministry, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., tackled the question: "So what?" Dr. Ralph Del Colle, associate professor of systematic theology, Christology and Trinitarian theology, and Dr. Mickey L. Mattox, assistant professor of historical theology, Reformation studies and Martin Luther, both from Marquette's theology department, gave responses to the presentations. Wood and Root gave their presentations again in a public discussion at the Lutheran Church of the Redemption, Wauwatosa, Wis. The Rev. John H.P. Reumann, retired professor of New Testament and Greek, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, introduced the presentations with the history of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue and some of the accomplishments of Lutheran-Catholic cooperation. Reumann has been a member of the U.S. dialogue since it began. Dialogue members continued their practice of attending a Catholic mass the Saturday evening and a Lutheran worship service the Sunday morning of their meetings. They worshiped together at St. John's Cathedral and at Mount Zion Lutheran Church, Wauwatosa. Sklba told the Lutheran congregation the dialogue concluded "that salvation by God's grace is indeed experienced and shared in each other's churches" and "that the ministries of 'pastor' and 'bishop' are established by God in service to that communion of salvation with God and each other." "We hope to see signs of ever greater cooperation between us, as a result of the recommendations that we have made flowing from our studies," he said. "At each meeting we earnestly pray for the gift of reconciliation, because we understand only too clearly that that is a gift from God. It is not something that we can achieve by our own efforts -- no matter how earnest they may be," Sklba said. -- -- -- A video news report on this story is available at http://www.elca.org/co/news/videos/video.index.html on the ELCA Web site. An audio news report is available in either a RealMedia http://media.elca.org/ramgen/audionews/040429.rm or MP3 format http://media.elca.org/ramgen/audionews/040429.mp3 on the Internet. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news