Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network Enters New Phase

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has made a series of ecumenical decisions in recent years, and now it's time to digest the resulting ecumenical agreements, said the Rev. Dennis A. Andersen, Bethany Lutheran Church, Seattle. Andersen was named president of the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network (LERN) at its annual meeting May 15-18 here at the Galt House Hotel.
Andersen succeeded the Rev. Robert O. Kriesat, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Chatham, N.J., as LERN's president. The bishop of each of the ELCA's 65 synods is considered that synod's ecumenical officer. Each bishop names one representative to LERN, which is coordinated through the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
"A sense of accomplishment" marked the annual meeting, said Andersen. Ecumenical representatives have been involved "professionally and personally" in presenting several ecumenical proposals to members of their synods, he said.
The ELCA approved several "full communion" proposals in recent years with the Episcopal Church, 1999; with the Moravian Church in America, 1999; and with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ, 1997. The Episcopal Church's general convention will consider the ELCA proposal this summer in Denver.
Based on a mutual confessing of the Christian faith and a lifting of any historic condemnations, full communion is a close working relationship between churches which includes the recognition and sharing of each other's ministries and sacraments.
The ELCA also approved the Lutheran-Catholic "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" in 1997.
"At least part of our task is done," said Andersen. "There will be an ongoing education process and reception process, in which we will be a part. That will take an entirely different energy and will require different resources," he said.
Andersen said ecumenical representatives will be working in ELCA synods and with churchwide departments to include "full communion" counterparts in discussions about such matters as Christian education, evangelism, seminary education and stewardship.
"The short-term goal would be to grow into the full communion relationships and to know what that means right now as we begin to unfold those things," he said.
"We no longer make decisions or undertake things in complete isolation as Lutherans," said Andersen. "We initiate partnerships and offer our resources to make community-based decisions," he said. "Almost every decision we make within the ELCA will affect our ecumenical partners."
LERN annual meetings are held in conjunction with the National Workshop on Christian Unity -- an annual conference U.S. Roman Catholics initiated in the 1960s as a response to ecumenical advances of Vatican II. The National Association of (Roman and Eastern Catholic) Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (NADEO) and Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEO) assumed oversight of the conference.
LERN had been involved in some of the workshop planning, but this year EDEO and NADEO have invited LERN to be a full partner in future planning, said Andersen. He called the invitation "a sign of the maturing" of LERN, which organized in 1988.
The LERN board appointed several of its members to a task force to evaluate the organization and its relationships. "So much of the life of LERN has been concentrated on the full communion proposals and interpretation that there has been almost no other item of business in our lives," Anderson said.
"At this point in the history of LERN, we have inherited structures," he said. "We have understandings in our relationship with the Department for Ecumenical Affairs, our relationships to one another and our relationships to our bishops."
"It's time to look at our structure and see if that continues to serve us well," said Anderson. "It's time to look at our governing documents and evaluate what we have been in the past and what we can be in the future as the ecumenical life of the church unfolds."
The LERN annual meeting included reports from the Rev. Daniel F. Martensen, director; the Rev. Darlis J. Swan, associate director; and the Rev. Randall R. Lee, associate for bilateral relations and dialogue, ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs. They updated the representatives on conversations the ELCA is conducting with other U.S. denominations, as well as the church's involvement in the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Lutheran World Federation and World Council of Churches.
Ecumenical representatives from each of the ELCA's nine regions elect a member to a three-year term on the LERN board. Three are elected each year.
Andersen and the Rev. David A. Owren, Christ Lutheran Church, Fortuna, Calif., were re-elected to the board. The Rev. G. Scott Cady, St. Peter Lutheran Church, Cornwall, Conn., was elected to succeed Kriesat on the board.
The board elected LERN officers: Andersen, president; and the Rev. Timothy F. Hungler, interim pastor, ELCA Indiana-Kentucky Synod, Lawrenceburg, Ind., vice president. The Rev. William J. Sappenfield, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Olathe, Kan., was re-elected secretary.
The Rev. Kurt S. Strause, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa., was named editor of "LERNings," the organization's newsletter.
LERN's next annual meeting will be held April 30-May 3, 2001, at the Hanalei Hotel, San Diego.

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