Lutherans Reach Out To 3 Other Churches But Reject ‘Full Communion’ With Episcopal Denomination

In a historic hour for Christian ecumenism, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Monday approved “full communion” with three other major Protestant denominations.

At the same time, the Lutherans fell short by a tiny margin of approving a similar accord with the Episcopal Church USA.

Meeting at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in their biennial Worldwide Assembly, the Lutheran delegates voted 893-193 Monday in favor of a “Formula of Agreement” with the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America.

Although not a merger, the agreement will allow the clergy of each denomination to minister to one another’s congregations and allow for greater cooperation in joint missionary work.

The other three denominations approved the agreement earlier this year.

Why would a member of one of these churches want to be served by a minister from another?

The accord will allow pastors of one denomination to serve the congregations of another in areas of the country where there are too few ministers in all denominations to go around.

A two-thirds vote, or 690 yes votes, was needed for adoption.

The heads of the four denominations now joined under the agreement Monday hailed the vote as a “decisive milestone in our journey toward unity and signals the beginning of a new chapter in the history of these four churches of the 16th-century Reformation.”

Less than five minutes after approving the agreement, however, the Lutheran delegates voted down a similar accord - called the “Concordat of Agreement” - with the Episcopalians by a vote of 684-351.

The Concordat’s 66.1 percent approval fell just six votes shy of passage, and the narrow defeat seemed to put the whole Lutheran assembly under a cloud for the rest of the day. Some voting members were even seen weeping after the Episcopal Concordat went down.

Lutheran Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson told the assembly late Monday he hoped the church could come up with a new plan to present to the Episcopal Church.

“I think the shoe is on our foot at this point,” he said.

But one of the Episcopal authors of the rejected plan was not hopeful.

“The ecumenical opportunity of the century has been lost,” said the Rev. Robert Wright, who for 10 years has led the Episcopal Church’s effort to draft and negotiate an agreement with the ELCA.

Last month delegates and bishops at the Episcopal Church’s triennial General Assembly - also meeting in the Pennsylvania Convention Center - voted overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement.

The two denominations are distinctly different in tradition, and it appeared some Lutherans were not willing to compromise on issues concerning church hierarchy.

“It’s a moment of mixed feelings, a difficult moment for us,” the Rev. John Thomas, ecumenical officer of the United Church of Christ, said at a press conference Monday. “Many of our colleagues are feeling pain and sorrow.”

“This was a chance to bridge the great divide in Christianity between the Reform and Catholic traditions,” said Wright, said Wright of General Theological Seminary in New York.

Unless the Assembly elects to reconsider its vote and approve the Concordat before the Assembly ends Tuesday, the agreement is probably dead for at least a decade. Any new accord would require a tortuous negotiation and approval process in both churches. The two denominations had negotiated the Concordat for more than 30 years.

The Episcopal Church USA has 2.5 million members and is based in New York. The ELCA has 5.2 million members and is based in Chicago. It is the largest of several Lutheran denominations in America.

The Presbyterian Church USA has 2.7 million members. The UCC has 1.5 million, and the Reformed Church 400,000.

Most participants agreed Monday the different role of bishops in the Lutheran and Episcopal denominations was the Concordat’s main stumbling block.

Bishops in the Evangelical Lutheran church are viewed largely as regional administrators with no special authority or status. The title was established within the ELCA only 30 years ago.

The bishops are elected to terms of office usually six years - and resume the title and status of pastor when the term ends.

If the Concordat had passed, however, Lutheran bishops would be installed for life and would preside over the ordination of pastors and other bishops - just as Episcopal and Roman Catholic bishops do. Catholic and Episcopal traditions trace their line back nearly 2,000 years to Jesus’ 12 apostles, a line they call the “apostolic succession.”

Those among the Lutherans who supported the Concordat argued before the vote Monday that approval would not change the way their church is run. Opponents warned the Concordat would install a hierarchy alien to Lutheran tradition.

Likewise, Shai Celeste, a delegate from the Southeast Pennsylvania Synod, warned that “lifelong bishops are contrary to the Reformation.”

Celeste said when she converted to Christianity from Islam she chose Lutheranism “because it teaches the priesthood of all believers, which is what Martin Luther believed in.”

The Rev. Roy Almquist, bishop of the Lutheran Southeast Pennsylvania Synod, said Monday he was “very disturbed” by the Concordat’s defeat. “The issue of apostolic succession is a profound problem for Lutherans,” he said.

Most of the opposition, he added, seems to come from delegates from the Upper Midwest - around Minnesota and South Dakota - where Lutherans are numerous and “very opposed to hierarchy and very committed to congregationalism.”