News Releases

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
February 8, 2010

ELCA Ecumenical Delegation Visits Church of England, Anglican Communion
10-054-JB

     LONDON (ELCA) -- An official delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met with officials of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, discussing matters such as a proposed "Anglican Covenant," global Lutheran-Anglican relationships and a breakaway Anglican church in the United States.
     The official ELCA delegation of 12 clergy and lay leaders is on a two-week ecumenical journey to visit world church leaders in London, Istanbul, Rome and Geneva.  The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and president of the Lutheran World Federation, is leading the delegation.
     The proposed Anglican Covenant is a relational agreement of churches in the communion. The Episcopal Church in the United States is part of the communion.
     It is designed to keep Anglican churches in the communion linked despite tensions and threats to church unity over the election of bishops in gay relationships or blessings of same-gender unions, according to a recent report in the London Telegraph.  The text is now with the churches of the Anglican Communion for formal consideration and possible adoption by each member church.
     In a Feb. 5 meeting with officials of the Church of England, the Rev. Paul Avis, general secretary of the church's Council for Christian Unity, told the ELCA delegation, "The Covenant is designed in relational terms. It is based on mutual commitment and mutual responsibility."
     Avis and staff discussed the Church of England's philosophy of ecumenism and the church's ecumenical agreements. "The policy of the Church of England is to work for ecumenism at all levels," he said.
     Quoting a portion of Hanson's Feb. 4 message to Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, Avis said, "Unity and mission can never be separated.  We would affirm that very strongly."
     Avis noted that 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, a historic world meeting that pushed ecumenism forward.
     Avis commented on the Church of England's initiative, "Fresh Expressions," a movement of congregations within that church "to find new ways to bringing people to the church and its mission." Avis said the Church of England is working with the Methodist Church of England to encourage new church forms through Fresh Expressions.
     The Archbishop of Canterbury and other individuals are providing financial support to the initiative, he said.
     The ELCA delegation heard descriptions of the Church of England's relationship with the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) through the Meissen Commission and the Porvoo Agreement, a full communion relationship of the Church of England and 12 Lutheran churches in northern Europe. They also discussed the Anglican Church in North America, a breakaway church from the Episcopal Church, plus the Church of England's dialogues with the Orthodox and Roman Catholics.
     Hanson described for the Church of England ecumenists the actions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly on human sexuality.  "The theological questions this has unearthed have called us to deeper conversation," he said.  Hanson added that the ELCA "has been very attentive to relationships during this process," both domestic and global.
     The ELCA presiding bishop said 220 congregations, out of the 10,396 in the ELCA, have taken first votes to leave the denomination as a result of the assembly actions.  Of those 156 achieved a two-thirds vote and will move to a second vote in the process to leave the ELCA.  Twenty-eight congregations have taken a second vote; seven congregations have been removed.
     The Church of England is expected to send a proposal about women serving as bishops to its dioceses.  If a majority agrees, the proposal will come back to the Church of England's national legislative authority for consideration.  That process will take at least until 2014 to complete.
     "The Church of England wants to have women bishops," Avis told the ELCA delegation. "But the Church of England wants to remain united.  There is no agreement on how that will happen."
     The ELCA delegation met with leaders of the Anglican Consultative Council while here and on Feb. 5 attended Evensong, a daily service of hymns and prayers at Westminster Abbey.
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     Photos from the 2010 Ecumenical Journey are at http://photos.ELCA.org/ELCA-News-Service-1 on the ELCA Web site.    

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
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