Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue Begins Drafting New Statement

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 10th round of talks in the United States between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) began drafting a statement on "The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries" when representative teams from both churches met March 29-April 1 at St. Paul's College, Washington, D.C.
"Koinonia" is an anglicized Greek word that appears several times in the Christian Bible and is translated as "fellowship, a close mutual relationship; participation, sharing in; partnership; contribution, gift." The dialogue is taking up issues of koinonia as they relate to "ordained ministry and structures of church unity."
The ELCA has 5.15 million members in 10,851 congregations across the United States and Caribbean. Those congregations are organized into 65 synods, each headed by a bishop.
The Roman Catholic Church has more than 62 million members in the United States. Its 187 dioceses or archdioceses oversee almost 20,000 parishes.
In this sixth meeting of the round, discussion focused on the relationships of the congregation, parish, synod and diocese with the ordained ministries that serve them. The dialogue moved from research on biblical, historical and theological differences and common faith on the nature of the church as a "communion of salvation" to the task of drafting a text for its final report.
Sections of the draft were prepared, one reviewing the work of previous dialogues and noting how this report will contribute to full communion among the Lutheran and Catholic churches.
The second section included an extended treatment of the two traditions' common understanding of the church as communion in Scripture, especially the New Testament.
The third section of the text will cover the common history from the biblical church until the Reformation, with a focus on the questions of ordained ministry and church structure.
The next section will cover the Reformation and the Council of Trent and the decisions the church made at that moment about its structures and ordained ministries.
A final section will outline the contribution of this dialogue to the reconciliation of these churches in communion, attempting to reconcile understandings of how the Church and its ministries are ordered, with some attention to the universal ministry of the pope -- already treated extensively in earlier Lutheran-Catholic dialogues. In this section recommendations will be made for next steps in the journey toward unity.
"Our conviction is that we are working toward a document that will provide recommendations for our next steps in the journey toward unity for our communions," said the Rev. Charles H. Maahs, bishop of the ELCA Central States Synod, Shawnee Mission, Kan., Lutheran co-chair of the dialogue. "It is important to the team that our final work will be received and used by our churches as we seek closer communion with one another," he said.
"One of our learnings has been the evolving of similar interpretations of the material we find in the New Testament in regard to 'structures and ministries.' We take seriously and depend upon previous documents and dialogues as we continue our research and conversations on our topic," said Maahs. "The biblical material and the historical documents will contribute to the final outcome of our dialogue."
The Catholic co-chair is the Most Rev. Richard J. Sklba, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. "I continue to be greatly impressed by the wisdom and faith the scholars bring to the table as we explore the various issues of our communion with God in Christ," he said.
"The candor and mutual respect which has marked our dialogue from the very beginning remains a clear sign of God's grace in our midst as we seek the unity which Christ wishes for us all," said Sklba. "The fact that we can laugh together, as well as engage in shared prayer and study, bodes well for the success for this round in the dialogue. I consider it a great grace to be a member of the team," he added.
"After six meetings our group has developed a good style of working together," said Maahs. "We have learned to respect our differences as well as to affirm the deep issues we share about our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This style of doing dialogue in itself holds great promise for the eventual outcome of our dialogue," he said.
The USCCB and the U.S.A. National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation initiated the first round of the "bilateral" dialogue that began in 1965. It has produced a number of common statements on such topics as Scriptures, saints and justification by faith.
In 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican signed the Joint Declaration on Justification by Faith. The ELCA is one of the LWF's 131 member churches. The 10th round of talks in the United States builds on the recommendations, content and method of the Joint Declaration.
The Rev. Alvin L. Barry, president of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, died March 23. The Missouri Synod's observer to the dialogue -- the Rev. Charles P. Arand, chairman of the department of systematic theology and assistant dean of the faculty, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis -- was absent from the dialogue meeting to attend Barry's funeral March 30. The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary -- a dialogue member -- was also absent to attend the funeral.
Other dialogue participants spent part of their meeting time in prayer for the Missouri Synod, recalling the memory of Barry. The second largest Lutheran church in the United States, the Missouri Synod is an observer to the dialogue but did not sign the Joint Declaration.
In addition to prayers to open and close each day of the meeting, dialogue members worshiped together March 31 at the Roman Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and April 1 at Resurrection Lutheran Church, Arlington, Va. Maahs brought greetings at the National Shrine; Sklba preached at Resurrection Lutheran Church.
Participants meet twice each year. The next meeting will be Dec. 6-9 in Baltimore.

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