CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Seminarians at one school voted in favor; others circulated a tract opposing a current proposal. Students at the eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have been studying two proposals for full communion which the ELCA Churchwide Assembly will consider this August in Denver.
The ELCA assembly will vote on "Called to Common Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the Concordat of Agreement (CCM)," which would establish a relationship of full communion with The Episcopal Church. The other proposal, "Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion," would affirm full communion with the Moravian Church in America.
Full communion is a common confessing of the Christian faith; a mutual recognition of Baptism and a sharing of the Lord's Supper, allowing for joint worship and an exchangeability of members; a mutual recognition and availability of ordained ministers to the service of all members of churches in full communion, subject only but always to the disciplinary regulations of the other churches; a common commitment to evangelism, witness and service; a means of common decision making on critical common issues of faith and life; and a mutual lifting of any condemnations that exist between churches.
Each ELCA seminary sponsored educational events for students to examine and discuss the contents and implications of the ecumenical proposals.
"We wish to state our support for entering into full communion with these church bodies," students at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., said in "United in Mind and Purpose," a statement adopted 46 to 1 at an April 22 student body meeting.
The Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church approved full communion with the ELCA in separate votes in 1998.
A round of Lutheran-Episcopal dialogues that began in 1983 developed a proposal for full communion between the two churches, "The Concordat of Agreement," and issued it in 1991.
A convention of the Episcopal Church approved the Concordat in 1997. The proposal failed to win a two-thirds majority of the ELCA assembly that year by six votes. The assembly asked that the Concordat be revised, taking its debate into account and clarifying the technical language of the dialogue. CCM was issued in November 1998 as that revision.
Lutherans and Episcopalians agree on the doctrine of "apostolic succession," an ongoing faithful proclamation of Christ. Episcopalians bring to the relationship the "historic episcopate," a succession of bishops as a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian church.
Critics of CCM oppose the idea that the ELCA would incorporate the historic episcopate. The students at Southern Seminary said Lutherans of the 16th century rejected the episcopate only because "in their day the office of bishop was corrupt and an institution in need of reform."
"The reformers would have kept the office if the bishops had been faithful to their vows," the seminarians said. "We do not believe that bishops rage against the church any longer, and so we believe there is merit to be found with the episcopacy."
The students at Southern Seminary called on all ELCA members to "pray that the invisible unity we already enjoy by virtue of our baptism might become a visible unity at the table of our Lord." They said the divisions of the church contradict the gospel it preaches.
"We wish for such unity and yet oppose Called to Common Mission (CCM)," read a tract, "Three Honest Objections," circulated among students at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. Stephan K. Turnbull, a member of Messiah Lutheran Church, Fairview Park, Ohio, finishing the second of four years of seminary education, was the tract's primary author with writing help of some fellow students. Turnbull said the tract did not attempt to represent the views of the student body but did intend to give voice to those seminarians opposed to the current proposal. He said the tract received mixed but mostly favorable attention. "We would like to take this opportunity to articulate three key reasons why we simply cannot accept CCM as the means by which we achieve full communion with the Episcopal Church," said the tract. The search for Christian unity has already been achieved in the gospel and Sacraments, such unity leaves no need for bishops, and Lutherans should not bind themselves to one permanent form of church governance, it said. Turnbull said students at Luther Seminary were not asked to sign or vote on the tract. The tract was distributed in campus mailboxes and displayed with information about CCM's opposition. Turnbull said he also gave interested students information on supporting arguments for CCM.
EDITORS: The full text of "Called to Common Mission" is located at
http://www.elca.org/ea/proposal/text.html
The full text of "Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion" is located
at http://www.elca.org/ea/fostoc.html
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
