Opposition Organizing Against ELCA Ecumenical Proposals

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Opposition is organizing within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America against proposals for the church to enter into "full communion" with the Episcopal Church and with three churches of the Reformed tradition -- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.  The ELCA Churchwide Assembly is scheduled to vote on the proposals when it meets Aug. 14-20 in Philadelphia.
     Albert H. Quie, Minneapolis, former governor of Minnesota, has attached the signatures of 160 prominent Lutherans to an open memorandum to voting members of the assembly.  Twenty Lutheran theologians also published a "position paper" in the summer issue of Lutheran Forum, a quarterly of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi, N.Y.
     Full communion is a common confessing of the Christian faith and a common commitment to evangelism, witness and service; a mutual recognition of ministry and the administration of the sacraments; and a means for dialogues of  "mutual admiration and admonition."  It would also lift any condemnations the churches may have leveled against each other.  Full communion must be approved by two-thirds of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
     The Quie memo speaks only to the Concordat of Agreement which would establish full communion between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church.  "The Concordat will require the ELCA to adopt Episcopal polity" that contradicts the orders of ministry the ELCA Churchwide Assembly approved in 1993, it said.
     After a six-year study of ministry the ELCA decided to have four "rosters" for its professional leaders -- pastors, associates in ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.  The church ordains pastors; and the others are lay ministers.  Bishops are pastors who preside over synods -- 65 territorial groups of congregations -- or the entire church.
     The task force that conducted the study of ministry recommended that the new order of diaconal ministers be ordained, but the 1993 assembly rejected that suggestion.  That assembly approved the task force definition of bishops as "ordained pastoral ministers who exercise oversight" and not as an order distinct from pastors.
     The Quie memo interprets those decisions as distancing the Lutheran church from the Episcopal Church's "three distinct orders of ordained ministers" -- bishops, priests and deacons.  It claims the Concordat will set the churches on a course that will reverse those decisions.
     "We would like to continue to work closely with our brothers and sisters in the Episcopal church and other Christians," said the Quie memo. "We can cooperate more effectively in witness, worship and service if uniform structures of ministry are not imposed."
     Seven who signed the Quie memo were also among the 20 theologians who wrote the Forum article, including the Rev. William H. Lazareth, Princeton, N.J., and the Rev. L. David Brown, Minneapolis, both former synod bishops. Another person in both groups is the Rev. David W. Preus, Minneapolis, who was bishop of the American Lutheran Church when it formed the ELCA with the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Lutheran Church in America.  A former president of the LCA, the Rev. Robert J. Marshall, Chicago, signed the Forum article.
     "The Concordat of Agreement with Episcopalians and the Formula of Agreement with the Reformed should be rejected," advised a foreword to the Forum article.  The article criticized Lutheran authors of the documents for referring to Scripture rarely while representing a church that considers "the Bible as source and norm for faith."
     Bishop Phillip L. Hougen, Iowa City, Iowa, in a regular publication of the ELCA's Southeastern Iowa Synod, answered his own fears.  "If I were convinced that adopting these proposals for full communion would cause us to lose our Lutheran identity, I would oppose them.  I am not convinced," he wrote.
     "Two facts spell trouble" for the ELCA, Bishop Peter Rogness of the Greater Milwaukee Synod wrote in a widely distributed manuscript.  "There is broad support for both proposals: and there is substantial opposition to each of the proposals."  Whether the proposals are approved or rejected, there will be hard feelings.
     "What's plan B?" Rogness asked.  "Either we adopt proposals that divide us, or we reject them and bring strong ecumenical momentum to a jarring halt.  Neither possibility will serve this church or our sister churches well."  He recommended that the ELCA pursue a "win-win" conclusion.
     When the Greater Milwaukee Synod met in assembly May 29-31 in Kenosha, Wis., it passed a resolution asking the churchwide assembly to establish the working partnerships of full communion without giving the appearance of adopting the other churches' structures or policies.
     ELCA synods hold assemblies every spring.  This year many synod assemblies are offering advice on how the churchwide assembly should vote on the proposals.  Unofficial tallies show more synod resolutions supporting the agreements than opposing them.
     The Forum article went on to endorse a third ecumenical proposal coming before the ELCA Churchwide Assembly -- to declare certain 16th century condemnations of the Roman Catholic Church no longer apply.  It praised the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification for beginning with a detailed "Biblical Message on Justification."
     In addition to the article, the Lutheran Forum issued an "editorial position" signed by 14 of the publication's editors and board members. They agreed with the conclusions of the article and added a call for the ELCA and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod "to renew their endeavors toward Lutheran unity."
     "Inter-Lutheran relations, except perhaps at the local level, are rather cool, if not cold," said the editorial.  It expressed concern that moves toward unity with other Christian traditions not harm "endeavors toward pulpit and altar fellowship between the ELCA and LCMS."
     The proposals for full communion must be approved by assemblies of the corresponding churches before the ELCA votes on them:

  *         June 14-20, Reformed Church in America, General Synod, University
            of Wisconsin, Milwaukee;

  *         June 14-21, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 209th General Assembly,
            Syracuse Convention Center, Syracuse, N.Y.;

  *         July 3-8, United Church of Christ, General Synod, Greater Columbus
            Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio; and

  *         July 15-25, Episcopal Church, General Convention, Pennsylvania
            Convention Center, Philadelphia.

Church Memberships

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America  ----------------------- 5,200,000
Episcopal Church ---------------------------------------------  2,500,000
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ---------------------------------  3,700,000
Reformed Church in America  ------------------------------------  300,000
United Church of Christ --------------------------------------  1,500,000

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html