Title: Talks Authorized Between ELCA and Missouri Synod ELCA NEWS SERVICE November 18, 1998 TALKS AUTHORIZED BETWEEN ELCA AND MISSOURI SYNOD 98-CC2-19-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) will begin formal conversations in June 1999. The ELCA Church Council authorized Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson to convene a representative 10-member panel "to discuss interchurch matters" with counterparts in the LCMS. The council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between meetings of the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly. The council met here Nov. 13-16. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is August 16-22, 1999, in Denver. In July the Missouri Synod convention voiced support for LCMS President A.L. Barry's efforts to set up talks between the two church bodies. That action was part of a resolution to express "deep regret and profound disagreement" with ecumenical decisions of the ELCA to enter into full communion with three Reformed churches and to lift certain condemnations of the Roman Catholic Church. Anderson met with other members of the Committee for Lutheran Cooperation on Nov. 9. That committee includes six ELCA leaders and their LCMS counterparts. The bishop told the council the LCMS leaders were clear that these would not be "church union talks." Suggested topics for the meetings include Lutheran identity, ELCA ecumenical agreements, the nature of the church and ecumenical activity, and the authorization of sacramental ministries for congregations without pastors. The ELCA and LCMS panels are expected to meet twice a year. For information contact: Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Director (773) 380-2955 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html