Wartburg Seminary Faculty Supports Full Communion Proposal

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The faculty of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, added its support for a proposal the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is considering that outlines a relationship of "full communion" with The Episcopal Church. Wartburg is one of eight seminaries of the ELCA.
"Called to Common Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the Concordat of Agreement (CCM)" must be approved by two-thirds of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, meeting Aug. 16-22 in Denver, before it can be offered to the Episcopal Church.
"We trust that the adoption of the full communion proposal, 'Called to Common Mission,' will strengthen the mission opportunities of the ELCA," said the Wartburg faculty, which includes 15 seminary professors.
Full communion opens possibilities for the exchange of clergy and other cooperative ministries. "The cooperation and support given by the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, to the preparation of the students of the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest is a significant example of how our deepening unity has served the church's mission," said the Wartburg faculty.
Wartburg established the Austin program in 1974. Lutheran courses taught on the Episcopal campus and at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary are accredited through Wartburg. The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago also supports the program.
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.
Wartburg's faculty pointed out four revisions that it affirmed as improving the proposal: dropping a statement that the bishop-pastor-deacon structure of the Episcopal Church would be a=20 "future pattern" for the ELCA; asserting that bishops are a "sign, = though=20 not a guarantee, of unity and apostolic continuity;" clarifying that the = "historic episcopate" is necessary for the Episcopal Church but not for the ELCA to have full communion; and revising the proposed ceremony for installing Lutheran bishops to downplay the involvement of Episcopal bishops.
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.
Many critics of CCM oppose the idea that the ELCA incorporate the historic episcopate.
"We have, together with the whole Church, been particularly concerned with questions surrounding the 'historic episcopate.' We find it an important clarification that the ELCA does not regard the historic episcopate as 'necessary' to the being of the Church or essential for 'full communion,' even though we are willing to adopt it for the sake of unity and mission" with the Episcopal Church, said the Wartburg faculty.
Wartburg's statement joins similar affirmations from the faculties of Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.; Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia; Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio; and Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C. Trinity's president, the Rev. Dennis A. Anderson, and Southern's president, the Rev. H. Frederick Reisz Jr., also issued personal messages of support for the proposal.

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