U.S. Lutheran and Reformed Churches Make History

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- History was made when four major U.S. Protestant churches celebrated their new relationship of "full communion" with a gala worship service Oct. 4 here at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.
More than 1,500 members from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ shared Holy Communion for the first time together -- something full communion makes possible.
"Here we are this day, servants of Christ, giving thanks for the unity of our churches in the faith once delivered to the saints, affirming our baptismal identity as God's people," said the Rev. James Kenneth Echols, president of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Echols delivered the sermon.
"It is God who opened the eyes of these Reformed and Lutheran theologians to see that the disagreements that divided were in fact differences that need not divide," Echols said. "It was God who opened their eyes to see that we could live more closely together in mutual affirmation and admonition, drinking from the same cup of salvation in witness to the one who shed his blood for us all."
Echols said, "Part of the meaning of this day has to do with committing ourselves, as the Formula of Agreement declares, to engage together in God's mission."
The four church bodies adopted "A Formula of Agreement" with a series of votes from June 1997 to March 1998, entering into full communion. Full communion is not a plan to merge; it commits the churches to share locally and internationally in their mission and to develop procedures whereby clergy in one church body may serve as pastors in congregations of another church body.
The 90-minute worship service began with representatives of the four church bodies processing into the chapel from four directions and meeting at a central baptismal font to affirm the churches' mutual recognition of Baptism.
"We gather to repent of the ways we have condemned each other, to recognize our mutual Baptism, and to encourage the sharing of the Lord's Supper among our members," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA.
Joined around the baptismal font Anderson, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), General Secretary Wesley Granberg Michaelson of the Reformed Church in America and President Paul H. Sherry of the United Church of Christ confessed past divisions.
"We gather to pledge ourselves to live under the gospel in mutual affirmation and admonition that respect and love for each other may grow," said Sherry.
After the "baptismal renewal," confession and forgiveness, the representatives of the four churches combined to form one procession to the altar led by the cross.
The Rev. Cynthia McCall Campbell, president of McCormick Theological Seminary, was the presiding minister at the service. McCormick is related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Dr. Addie J. Butler, Philadelphia, was the assisting minister. Butler is vice president of the ELCA.
Vestments worn by ministers at the service represented the variety of traditions in the four churches.
The liturgy included resources from the Lutheran and Reformed churches, as well as new liturgical material commissioned for the worship service. Music was drawn from the Presbyterian tradition, the Lutheran tradition, and from the traditions that make up the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America, according to the Rev. Paul R. Nelson, chair of the Lutheran-Reformed worship committee. Nelson is director for worship in the ELCA's Division for Congregational Ministries.
The "Prayers of the People" were led in a variety of languages by members of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Ministers and the congregation greeted one another with expressions of peace following the prayers.
Worship ended with a charge from each of the four church body leaders. "Remember this day on which we have joined together to hear the Word and share the sacrament," said Anderson.
The congregation responded by saying: "May our proclamation of the Word and sharing of the sacrament be a sign of healing and hope to the world."
Musicians included organist David Eicher of First Presbyterian Church, LaPorte, Ind.; pianist Dennis Friesen-Carper, Valparaiso, Ind.; percussionists from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso; the Sanctuary Choir of Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago; Hope College Choir, Holland, Mich.; the Tower Brass from Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago; and bell ringers from Bethany Lutheran Church, Batavia, Ill., Augustana Lutheran Church, Hyde Park, Chicago, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
The ELCA is made up of 5.2 million members in the United States and Caribbean; 2.6 million make up the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); 1.5 million make up the United Church of Christ; and the Reformed Church in America has 300,000 members.
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel is the chapel for the University of Chicago. The Gothic structure was built between 1925 and 1928, named for the university's founder, John D. Rockefeller.

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