ELCA Assembly Conducts Hearings on Ecumenical Proposals

DENVER (ELCA) -- The 1999 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will vote on proposals to enter into "full communion" with The Episcopal Church and the Moravian Church in America. Six hearings were held Aug. 17 to let voting members ask questions about the proposals before debating them on the assembly floor.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting Aug. 16-22 here at the Colorado Convention Center. There are more than 2,500 people participating, including 1,039 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: Hope for a New Century."
Four hearings took questions about "Called to Common Mission" (CCM), which is an ELCA proposal for full communion with the Episcopal Church. Two hearings were held on "Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion," which the Moravian Church approved in 1998. About 300 people attended each hearing.
Full communion does not commit churches to merge. They would agree to a closer working relationship and freer exchange of clergy.
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.
The Rev. Fred S. Opalinski, Trinity Lutheran Church, Latrobe, Pa., moderated two hearings on the Lutheran proposal for full communion with the Episcopal Church. Opalinski is a member of the ELCA Church Council who serves on the advisory committee of the church's Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
In the hearing, voting members questioned Dr. Cynthia Jurisson, associate professor of American church history, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; the Rev. Martin E. Marty, Lutheran chair of the CCM drafting team; and the Rev. Canon David W. Perry, ecumenical officer of The Episcopal Church. Jurisson spoke against the proposal; Marty spoke in favor; and Perry represented the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Todd W. Nichol, associate professor of church history, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and Dr. Michael J. Root, professor of systematic theology, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, fielded questions in two other hearings. Nichol spoke against, and Root spoke in favor. Bishop Christopher Epting of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa represented the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Karen S. Parker, ELCA Church Council member and assistant to the bishop of the Pacifica Synod, Huntington Beach, Calif., moderated those hearings.
Nichol and Root served with Marty as Lutheran members of the drafting team that wrote CCM.
Nichol, who refused to sign the final document, told the hearing that requiring the adoption of the historic episcopate, for the sake of ecumenical fellowship, does not "comport with Holy Scripture or the Confessions of this church." Ecumenical agreements should not entail one party demanding something from another, he said.
Root called the proposed agreement a "stunning ecumenical breakthrough." To turn it down because of the historic episcopate would be "saying 'no' to three quarters of the Christians in the world," he said.
Questions at the hearing focused on why the historic episcopate was "necessary" if the proposal says that Episcopalians already recognize Lutheran pastors. Root explained that the episcopate was not "necessary" for salvation or to be recognized as a "church" by the Episcopalians, but was a valid "sign" of church unity and governance.
Nichol argued that the issue was so divisive that the decision should not be made. A similar proposal failed by six votes at the ELCA's 1997 assembly in Philadelphia.
"We are already in full fellowship," Nichol said, because Lutherans and Episcopalians have stated that they agree on the essentials of the Christian faith. "Requiring something else," he said, "is like saying to someone 'will you marry me?' and then asking 'will you have plastic surgery?'"
Root said both parties were being asked to make some changes for the sake of Christian unity. "It is like a marriage," he said, "where everyone changes for the sake of the family."
Members of the audience complained at several points that only one member of the panel presented a dissenting viewpoint while all other resource people seemed to favor the proposal. The hearings were organized to take comments from the voting members -- rotating between opposing and supporting remarks.
Voting members questioned how Lutheran pastors in Episcopal churches, and vice versa, could teach the doctrines of the other church body without having to believe them. Marty said it was very much like non-Lutherans teaching at ELCA colleges. They are asked to be "friendly to the venture," he said.
Jurisson said the ELCA is in "complimentary" relationships with other church bodies and is considering such an affiliation with the Moravian church. "Maybe, for the sake of ministry, we could understand the historic episcopate in such a way that is not so 'locked into' the Episcopal tradition." She said the historic episcopate would force the ELCA into "an ecumenical cul-de-sac" in its relationships with other churches.
Lutherans have held that church structures cannot guarantee faithfulness, said Jurisson, but they can respect other structures such as that of the Episcopal Church. "Let differences define us but not divide us," she urged.
To maintain the historic episcopate, a bishop in succession must be present to "lay hands on" someone being ordained.
The authority to ordain in the Lutheran church comes from "the priesthood of all believers," said Jurisson, referring to a Lutheran principle that the faith is maintained by all Christians and not solely by bishops or the ordained.
The authority to ordain in the Episcopal Church comes from "the ministry of the baptized," said Perry. As a servant of the church, the bishop ordains on behalf of the diocese, he said.
The historic episcopate is often portrayed as a "gift" the ELCA is to receive from the Episcopal Church as they enter into full communion. Jurisson said, if Lutherans reject the "gift," then there is no full communion. That makes the "gift" a requirement, she said.
The Rev. Steven L. Ullestad, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Iowa Synod, asked Jurisson not to think of full communion as a gift or a requirement but as "what God is creating." He said Lutherans could influence the succession of bishops to be "an evangelical episcopate" in which bishops are measured more by the gospel than by their office.
The Lutheran-Moravian proposal for full communion has received little opposition among Lutherans. Carol L. Weiser, ELCA Church Council member, Bethlehem, Pa., moderated hearings on that agreement. The Rev. Otto Dreydoppel Jr., director of Moravian studies, Moravian Theological Seminary, fielded questions with the Rev. R. Burke Johnson, president of the Moravian Northern Province, and the Rev. Robert E. Sawyer, president of the Moravian Southern Province.

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