by Jill McNish The next time you go by Episcopal House, where the Diocese of Newark's offices are housed, you will be treated to the sight of this magnificently rendered
There will be a dedication service for the seal at 2:30 PM, on Sunday, December 5, 1999, at Episcopal House, immediately preceding the Diocesan Evensong for the ingathering of parish pledges.  --Return to Contents
by James Solheim (ENS) After three days of civil but intense debate, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved by nearly a 70 percent majority a document that opens the way to full communion with the Episcopal Church-and may provide new energy for the ecumenical movement in a new century. The final vote of 716 (69.3 percent) to 317 (30.7) met the requirements of two-thirds of voting members at the Church-wide Assembly in Denver. The document, Called to Common Mission, was written after the ELCA failed by six votes to approve a Concordat of Agreement at its 1997 assembly in Philadelphia. A few weeks earlier the Episcopal Church's General Convention had overwhelmingly approved the Concordat. The Lutherans did approve full communion with the Presbyterians, United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America. In the wake of the 1997 vote, the Lutherans appointed a writing team, headed by Prof. Martin Marty of Chicago, to write a new proposal that would address the objections that emerged at the assembly. Episcopalians served as advisors to the writing team. The document will be presented to the General Convention at its meeting in Denver next summer. If approved, the two churches would share mission strategies and even clergy. In the most controversial provision, the Lutherans would agree to join Episcopalians in the historic episcopate, a sign of the church's continuity with the apostolic church. Well-organized opponents of full communion have argued strenuously that agreement in Word and Sacrament is sufficient for unity, that Lutherans should not be "required" to adopt the historic episcopate. Lutherans in other parts of the world do embrace the historic episcopate but it has never been part of the American experience. An Incredible Step Speaking to the assembly following the vote, the Rev. David Perry, the Episcopal Church's ecumenical officer, said, "This is an incredible step you have taken. What hope for a new century," he added, drawing on the theme of the Churchwide Assembly. In a prepared statement, read at a news conference by Bishop Christopher Epting of Iowa, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said, "I pray that our response can be positive. The 30 long years of conversation and dialogue have come to fruition. The promise of our deepening life together offers real hope for the broken world. The test of our full communion will be our faithfulness to the Gospel in mission and witness, in prayer and fellowship at God's altar. We ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in the days ahead, to unfold and deepen our relationship." "This is a big step for us-but we're not dancing yet," said Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson of the ELCA, pointing out that the document must be approved by the Episcopal Church. "We live in hope." Yet the action to approve full communion with the 50,000-member Moravian Church, with only 11 negative votes, as well as with the Episcopal Church, is "a great step in our ecumenical understanding," Anderson added. "And it is not the end. We will continue to press forward." Perry cautioned that the majority who favored full communion should be "prayerful and sensitive" in recognition that over 30 percent of the assembly voted against CCM. "Healing is a part of our new life together." He said that the educational task, helping Episcopalians understand the new document and how it differs from the Concordat of 1997, will begin almost immediately. Epting said that there are "substantial changes but ones that are consistent with the document" and he did not anticipate much opposition among Episcopalians. A last-minute amendment gave Lutherans some "wiggle room" on the requirement that bishops preside at all ordinations. While agreeing with "the historic practice whereby the bishop is representative of the wider church," and should "regularly" preside, it concedes that there might be emergency situations in which that would not be possible. A First for an American Church Marty said that he celebrated both moves and said, from a historical viewpoint, it is the first time in U.S. religious history that a church has bridged the gap between churches so diversely governed-congregational, presbyterian, synodical, conferencial and episcopal. In light of the new relationships, the Lutheran vote could open the way for other churches to consider the historic episcopate. "Many new partnerships might lie ahead," he predicted. Prof. J. Robert Wright of the General Seminary in New York, an advisor to the ecumenical office and a partner in the writing process, agreed. In an interview he said that "Lutherans have bridged the gap of the Reformation and have given a powerful new energy to the ecumenical movement for the new millennium." He expressed his hope that the General Convention would "embrace their decision" next summer. Closer to Home One particular goal of the Call to Common Mission is that Episcopal and Lutheran congregations approach tasks jointly, rather than singly which causes duplication of effort. We in the Diocese of Newark have just experienced the effectiveness of working together during the recent season at Camp Beisler-Eagle's Nest. The individual programs had previously attracted a total of roughly 800 participants; this summer the merged program served 1100 campers, about a 1/3 increase. Bishop Jack McKelvey, who worked closely with Bishop E. Roy Riley, Jr., of the New Jersey Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, both on the camp program and on the CCM document, reacted to the vote by saying, "I'm excited about the possibilities this agreement allows, how it calls us into the mission of the church." James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and Information and covered the Churchwide Assembly for ENS. --Return to Contents --Go
to Next Page |
