ELCA Assembly Debates Agreement with Episcopal Church

DENVER (ELCA) -- Most ecumenical dialogues revolve around broad and complex matters of doctrine and a variety of concerns, but debate about whether the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) should declare full communion with The Episcopal Church has narrowed to one question: Should the ELCA adopt a form of the "historic episcopate" in order to be in full communion with Episcopalians?
No other issue arose during more than an hour of open discussion of the matter at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly here Aug. 18. Voting members of the assembly spoke passionately, but without rancor on both sides of the issue of whether to accept the document titled "Called To Common Mission" (CCM). CCM is a Lutheran proposal for full communion with the Episcopal Church.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting Aug. 16-22 at the Colorado Convention Center. There are more than 2,500 people participating, including 1,039 voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: Hope for a New Century."
The issue of the "historic episcopate" has stirred feelings deeply rooted in several different forms of Lutheran piety. The ELCA, formed in 1987 by the merger of three Lutheran church bodies, contains people whose former church bodies had varied understandings about the roles or need for pastors and bishops.
If the agreement is approved, future Lutheran bishops would be installed by bishops whose churches already have the historic episcopate, the concept that those who ordain new pastors are from a line of bishops stretching back to the earliest days of the church. Only bishops would be allowed to ordain new pastors.
In return, the Episcopal Church would -- if that church agrees -- immediately recognize all current Lutheran pastors and bishops as being already ordained into the historic episcopate.
For some Lutherans, this restores what the 16th century Reformation was unable to preserve. The Rev. G. Scott Cady of the ELCA New England Synod said the Reformers did not see the episcopate as "folly" but that circumstances of the time prevented some Lutheran churches from retaining it. "Let us not miss this truly joyous and blessed opportunity to carry on the Reformers' dreams," Cady said.
Opponents to the measure contend that American Lutherans have never had the historic episcopate and do not need it. The Rev. William Saunders of the ELCA Southern Ohio Synod said, "I would feel hypocritical accepting something that is not truly necessary in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith."
The Rev. Norman Wahl of Rochester, Minn., argued that the term "historic episcopate" is used too loosely and that adopting it might "narrow" the ELCA's ecumenical agenda, which also includes full communion with churches of the Reformed tradition.
The Rev. John Thomas, president-elect of the United Church of Christ, one of the Reformed denominations in full communion with the ELCA, said the UCC was also considering ecumenical ways to maintain the office of "oversight" -- another way of describing the function of a bishop. "If you move forward," he said, "you will encourage and challenge us to take up this issue in our own life."
Some Lutherans oppose language which seems to imply a "hierarchy" or "ranking" in the church and among its clergy, though both Lutheran and Episcopal theologians maintain that the document does not set up any such ranking. Opposing the measure, the Rev. Tom Lyberg of the ELCA Northwestern Ohio Synod, said, "I do not see this as a mission document; I see it as a political, ecclesiastical document." Lyberg argued that rather than establishing a new model of church cooperation, the proposal was based on a "failed paradigm."
Richard Peterson, a lay voting member from Minneapolis, dismissed the idea that the agreement establishes a "multi-level" ministry. Active in Lutheran-Episcopal dialogues, Peterson said he felt that characterizations of Episcopalians as hierarchical were "misrepresentations" of the truth.
"Every time the (Lutheran) Confessions speak of the episcopate, they do so affirmatively," Peterson added, noting that five of the ELCA's seminary faculties have endorsed the proposal.
Many proponents spoke of the warm relations they have with Episcopalians in their home towns and said they would welcome a declaration of full communion as a means of deepening those relationships.
"We don't need the historic episcopate to give us unity," said the Rev. Julie Jones of the Northern Great Lakes Synod, in opposition to the proposal.
Some contend that the issue of the historic episcopate is too divisive within the ELCA to be dealt with at the present time. "We have been the ELCA for 11 years. I do not believe we know who we are at this point. There are issues we need to settle before we enter into this agreement," argued the Rev. Darby Lawrence of the Central-Southern Illinois Synod.
Beth Shoffner of the ELCA North Carolina Synod urged the assembly's voting members to "stop clinging to the boat" and fearing the "boisterous winds of our doubts." She said she saw, in the agreement, "the outstretched hand of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit."
The Rev. Steven Ullestad, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Iowa Synod, said he previously opposed full communion with the Episcopalians but had learned enough about them to move to the other side. He said, "The greatest gift we can offer each other is the creation of an episcopate that is both evangelical and historic; for the sake not only of our relationship with the Episcopal Church, but for our witness to the world."
The Rev. Timothy F. Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., listed the events of what he called a "remarkable century of change" for Lutherans. The church, he said, has moved from social "quietism to having a vigorous public statement." It has approved ordination for women, made commitments to mission that expanded the church beyond its northern European roots, renewed its worship life, and planted thousands of new churches. Formerly, said Lull, "no one would have picked Lutherans as likely to be ecumenical leaders. Now others look to us for our leadership."
At the ELCA's 1997 assembly in Philadelphia, a similar proposal for full communion with the Episcopal Church failed by six votes.
The "Called to Common Mission" proposal comes before the assembly Thursday morning and requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

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