Episcopalians endorse pact with Lutherans

Christian Century, August 13, 1997

On July 18 the Episcopal Church approved an historic intercommunion agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that will create pastor exchanges, common parishes and joint ministries. The decision came as the Episcopal Church -- meeting in Philadelphia for its triennial General Convention -- struggled with sexuality and gender issues and what to do with bishops who will not ordain women to the priesthood.

The Episcopal-Lutheran Concordat, as the agreement is called, will have little effect on congregations that have already developed joint ministries on their own. However, it will lead to significant changes in the way Lutheran pastors are ordained and a suspension of the Episcopal Church's insistence that only its priests can celebrate its Holy Communion. The exchange of clerics between Episcopalians and Lutherans is to begin after January 1, 2001, and joint consecrations of future bishops could begin as early as this fall or next spring.

Following the decision, J. Robert Wright, Episcopal ecumenical and interfaith relations officer, said, "In my opinion, this will be the major ecumenical event for this century." The concordat was forged in formal talks between the two churches over more than 30 years. A stepping-stone was an agreement called Interim Eucharistic. Sharing, in which occasional joint liturgies and joint ministries were authorized. The concordat will not mean a merger of the denominations. Each will maintain its own traditions, except that all future bishops in both traditions will be consecrated jointly by prelates from each.

The two issues deemed most likely to derail the convention -- a clarification of women's ordination, and a blessing of same-sex unions -- were resolved in what someone called "true Anglican fashion." In very close votes that reflected the church's continued divisions over sexuality, both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies (priests and laypeople) addressed certain practical and pastoral concerns of the church's gay and lesbian members, but stopped short of endorsing preparation of a blessing rite for unions. A measure was passed that directs the denomination's Standing Liturgical Commission to study the possibility of developing a rite for same-sex unions and present a preliminary report in 1999.

In a related matter, the church indicated its willingness to recognize gays and lesbians in the church by extending spousal health insurance to the domestic partners of clergy and church employees. The convention left the definition of domestic partners to each diocese. On the closing day, july 25, the convention passed a resolution that acknowledged the church's "diversity of opinion" on the morality of gay and lesbian sexual relationships," yet apologized "for years of rejection and maltreatment [of homosexuals] by the church."

On the issue of women in ministry the General Convention made it clear that women's ordination is mandatory in all dioceses. While bishops of the four dioceses that continue to oppose women's ordination -- Fort Worth, Texas; San Joaquin, California; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Quincy, Illinois -- will not be forced to ordain women themselves, they have been placed on notice that they must provide for the ordination and licensing of female clergy to serve in their dioceses. The resolution was broadened, however, to state that no members of the church could be denied access to ordination or deployment "on account of their sex or their theological views on the ordination of women."

In his last address as head of the Episcopal Church, outgoing Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning warned that the sexuality and gender issues are dividing the church with "fear and -- let me name it -- hate." He wondered aloud if the division stemmed "from the evil from which we pray daily for God% deliverance." The church's witness, he added, has seemed divided, and at times ludicrous, to our society, because we do not agree on what a wholesome' relationship means. Some of the most extreme among us have used the disagreement within our body to foment difficulty and advance themselves and their causes. This is not of God. Surely, this is not of God."