Lutheran-United Methodist Dialogue Discusses Sacraments

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the United Methodist Church (UMC) both accept two sacraments -- Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Members of the Lutheran-United Methodist dialogue met Feb. 14-17 in Orlando, Fla., and "found significant agreement among the churches' histories and doctrinal teachings" on the sacraments, according to a communique from the dialogue chairs.
The Lutheran co-chair of the dialogue is the Rev. Allan C. Bjornberg, bishop of the ELCA's Rocky Mountain Synod, Denver. The United Methodist co-chair is Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, Nashville, Tenn.
"Baptism is understood to be the entry into church life; the Lord's Supper is the regular gathering around the holy meal for faith communities," said the communique. "The two church bodies have these sacraments in common and these are the only rites considered sacraments by these church bodies."
The two churches may have different understandings of the sacraments, Talbert told the United Methodist News Service, but "we quickly came to realize these differences are basically in terms of nuance."
Both traditions believe in the "real presence" of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper, Talbert cited as an example. While Lutherans emphasize Christ's presence in the bread and wine, United Methodists focus on the Holy Spirit, he said.
"When we partake of the bread, we are, in fact, remembering who Jesus really was and is," said Talbert. "Once we partake of Holy Communion, Christ's spirit empowers us and sends us forth to do mission and ministry in the world."
"We are hitting our stride now as our dialogue really gets under way," Bjornberg said in an interview. "We have identified some areas of wonderful convergence, but we also know there is some work to do. There are lots of questions yet to be answered, but there's a lot of exciting conversation."
The UMC includes ministries in Africa, Asia and Europe, and talks between Lutherans and United Methodists in other parts of the world have set the stage for the U.S. dialogue, said Bjornberg.
"There is an agreement between United Methodists in Norway and the Church of Norway, which is Lutheran and one of our Lutheran World Federation partners. So, that gives us a leg up on the work," he said.
While the dialogue must continue its conversation about the sacraments, Bjornberg said, "I think everyone around the table was surprised at the amount of convergence that we discovered in our days together in Orlando."
"We are moving now to issues of justification and sanctification," he said.
"Methodists have a strong tradition of moving forward in sanctification in this life," Bjornberg said. "We have to hear carefully from them what they mean by that, how they articulate that and how that works for us, as Lutherans, who continually say we are saved by grace alone," he said.
The two churches or their predecessor church bodies conducted official dialogues from 1977 to 1979 and from 1985 to 1987. This was the second meeting of the third round, which began in September 2001. The next meeting of the dialogue will be in September 2002 in Chicago. Participants plan to meet twice a year.
With 8.5 million members, the UMC is the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States. The ELCA is the fourth largest, with 5.13 million members.
The ELCA has 10,816 congregations organized in 65 synods, each headed by a bishop, across the United States and Caribbean.
The UMC has 36,361 congregations in 50 episcopal areas across the United States and Puerto Rico. It includes another 1.4 million Methodists in about 5,150 congregations in 18 episcopal areas in Africa, Asia and Europe.

*Linda Bloom is director of the United Methodist News Service, New
York.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html