Unity Agreement Links Lutherans, Episcopalians

Climaxing a 30-year ecumenical journey, the Episcopal Church gave final approval Saturday to a historic unity agreement with the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination.

The pact, previously approved by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, means that the 7.5 million members of the two mainline denominations may receive communion in each other’s churches, share in outreach ministries and, most notably, call either an Episcopal priest or a Lutheran minister as their local pastor.

The agreement, which takes effect next January, is not a merger. Both denominations will maintain their separate identities and organizations. The move, however, represents a major departure from denominational distinctions--and a dramatic new sign that churches are moving to heal centuries of division as Christianity enters its third millennium.

In the last several years, Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in the United States and Europe have forged historic agreements of cooperation and theological understanding. Although formidable obstacles remain, those agreements are slowly changing a religious landscape that has been pockmarked by divisions, some dating back to the Great Schism of 1054 between Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy.

“God has opened a magnificent door before us,” the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said Saturday.

Both churches are similar in their liturgical worship and are part of the mainstream of American Protestantism.

Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Frederick H. Borsch said both churches “rejoiced” that they are a step closer toward living the Christian belief in “one Lord and one faith.”

Among those voting Saturday was the Very Rev. Mary June Nestler, dean of the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont.

“It’s an extraordinary move,” she said. “There are very few points in the history of the church that one can really hold up with enormous pride. This is one of them. It’s something of an ecumenical miracle.”

She said many delegates wept joyfully. Immediately after the vote, she said, the 800 Episcopal delegates began spontaneously singing a hallmark Lutheran hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”

Final approval came without debate Saturday at the Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention, meeting in Denver. It is the church’s highest policymaking body.

Modeled after the U.S. Congress, the General Convention is a bicameral legislature. Its House of Bishops overwhelmingly approved the accord on Friday. On Saturday, the House of Deputies, made up of priests and members of the laity, concurred nearly unanimously. The accord does not include the smaller Lutheran Church, the Missouri Synod.

The Episcopal Church’s action sealed the end of a long and often difficult path of reconciliation. Three years ago, the Lutheran body narrowly rejected a similar measure. Although there has long been an agreement in principle on such practical issues as shared outreach ministries, differences over the role of bishops and ordination of clergy have been sticking points.

The measure lost by just six votes in 1997 at the Lutheran church’s Churchwide Assembly because of Episcopalian insistence that, as a condition of full communion, Lutheran bishops be grafted into what the Episcopal Church calls the “historic episcopate”--an unbroken line of succession that believers say can be traced to the original apostles of Jesus Christ.

That provision now means that all future Lutheran bishops must be ordained by bishops already members of the historic line of succession, going back to the Apostles.

Bishops in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have not been in that line of succession, although 15 other Lutheran churches around the world are, along with Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican and Episcopal bishops.

Bishops must also ordain future Lutheran ministers. At the moment, a Lutheran pastor may ordain another pastor. Exceptions will be made for existing Lutheran pastors and bishops.

Some Lutherans Critical of Provision

The requirement that new Lutheran bishops and pastors be ordained by a bishop in the historic succession has drawn fire from some Lutherans, particularly in the upper Midwest. They have argued that authentic ordination and preaching the authentic gospel depends not on a line of succession but the power of the Holy Spirit.

The issue came up in floor debate Friday before the House of Bishops. Episcopal Bishop Edward Lee of western Michigan said Friday that such differences are inevitable. He said some Lutherans are fearful that some Lutheran congregations will leave the denomination in protest.

But he said that Lutherans have pledged to stand by the agreement. “Their response to us was that will be their problem. We’re not here to solve that problem for them,” Lee said. “We’re here to say what we have before us is . . . consistent with the gospel mandate that the Body of Christ be one.”

Overall, however, the vast majority of Evangelical Lutherans and Episcopalians seem comfortable with the new ecumenism, one that reflects what has often been occurring on the grass-roots level. Those on both sides said that each church will bring “gifts” to the association.

“I can hardly wait to celebrate with the Lutheran congregation in the Santa Clarita Valley,” said the Rev. Lynn A. Jay, vicar of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Santa Clarita.

As a practical matter, most local congregations will notice little immediate change. Joint ministries on college campuses, to the elderly and in prisons and hospitals often take place at the diocesan or regional level.

Moreover, Evangelical Lutherans and Episcopalians have been permitted to receive communion in each other’s churches since 1981 under an interim agreement. Saturday’s vote makes that agreement permanent.

In addition, most local congregations are expected to continue to be served by clergy from their own denominations. But in rural areas, for example, where there may be two small struggling Episcopal and Lutheran congregations, it will now be possible for them to be led by the same pastor.

Perhaps the major import of the accord, delegates said, is symbolic.

“The agreement will be a very significant sign to the ecumenical community that our two churches can live in communion with one another for the sake of a greater unity in the service of a common mission,” said the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Lutheran Church, added, “This shows the world a new way to be one in Christ.”