12 Wartburg Faculty Affirm CCM, Call for Implementation Latitude

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Twelve faculty members of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, said in a March 31 position paper and open letter to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) they continue to support an ELCA proposal for full communion with The Episcopal Church, known as "Called to Common Mission" (CCM). The twelve also said they support suggestions that seek some "latitude" in the implementation of the proposal.
Wartburg is one of eight ELCA seminaries. Its faculty publicly announced support for CCM before it was adopted by the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Denver. In July a general convention of the Episcopal Church will consider CCM.
CCM creates possibilities for cooperative ministries, and it allows for the exchange of clergy under certain circumstances. It has generated controversy in the ELCA. Some are opposed to accepting the "historic episcopate," a provision of the proposal that was adopted by the ELCA.
"We have been clear in our support for CCM," the Wartburg faculty members said. "We are deeply concerned about the threats of schism within the ELCA." The Wartburg faculty members also said they are concerned that "the same open charity of Christian liberty" be extended to those who oppose the historic episcopate as was extended to the Episcopal Church when the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted to enter the historic episcopate.
For some ELCA members, CCM is not acceptable because it requires the ELCA to accept the historic episcopate -- a succession of bishops back to the earliest days of the Christian church. With that, Lutheran bishops must preside at all ordinations and Lutheran bishops must be installed in the presence of other bishops already in the historic line of succession. Those opposed to CCM say the historic episcopate violates traditional Lutheran confessions.
The Wartburg faculty members said they "heartily support" a pastoral letter issued by the ELCA Conference of Bishops last month and urge the ELCA Church Council to affirm the direction proposed by the bishops. The council meets April 8-9 in Chicago.
In their pastoral letter, the bishops said they "invite the exploration of possible ways to allow a synodical bishop, in unusual circumstances and with appropriate consultation, to authorize another ELCA pastor to preside at an ordination." They also asked the ELCA Church Council, in consultation with the presiding bishop, to pursue the idea in "consultation in this church and with the Episcopal Church."
ELCA clergy should not be forced to violate their consciences regarding the historic episcopate "any more than we have forced the Episcopal Church to violate their consciences regarding their necessity of the historic episcopate for unity," the Wartburg faculty members said.
The faculty members cited the "Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope," by Philipp Melanchthon, a 16th century scholar who authored the "Augsburg Confession," a foundational document of the Lutheran Church. Melanchthon was a colleague of Martin Luther.
The treatise said ordination administered by a pastor in his own church is valid by "divine right." Some provision for pastoral ordination needs to be made for those who understand the Lutheran confessions to be violated by adoption of an historic episcopate, the faculty members said.
"The ELCA needs to develop a provision that, in Christian liberty, respects the Christian freedom and the conscience of the ordinand and allows pastoral ordination affirmed as valid by the Confessions," the faculty members said. "If the Church Council explicitly allows clear provision for alternative ordination, then the procedure suggested by the bishops' pastoral letter may work."
"Finally, we, in full support of CCM, would thus affirm latitude in the implementation of CCM," the faculty members concluded.
Wartburg faculty who signed the letter are the Rev. James L. Bailey, professor of New Testament and Endowed Chair of Theology; the Rev. Roger W. Fjeld, professor of church history emeritus and president emeritus; the Rev. Ann L. Fritschel, assistant professor, Hebrew Bible; Dr. L. Shannon Jung, director of rural ministry, Schools of Theology in Dubuque; the Rev. Duane H. Larson, president; Dr. Elizabeth A. Leeper, associate professor of church history; the Rev. Craig L. Nessan, associate professor of contextual theology and academic dean; the Rev. Daniel L. Olson, professor of pastoral care; the Rev. Winton D. Persaud, professor of systematic theology; the Rev. Duane A. Priebe, Kent S. Knutson professor of systematic theology; the Rev. Ralph W. Quere, professor of history and theology; and the Rev. Gwen B. Sayler, associate professor of Old Testament.
A cover letter with the position paper noted that other faculty members at Wartburg may not have had an opportunity to discuss or sign the document.

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