Half a loaf
Nilson, Jon
Jon Nilson HALF A LOAF Lutherans draw a line What a testimony it would be, in the midst of this balkanized society, i f two churches, long separated, could affirm each other and begin to knit...
...Approval by the ELCA required the vote of its churchwide assembly...
...Mutual recognition, however, would have allowed Lutherans to adopt the "historic episcopate" as a means, not an essential, of their church's proclamation of the gospel, while Episcopalians could state that the ELCA had maintained the essentials of faith, even without the historic episcopate...
...Yet the wealth of theological analysis around the concordat must and will continue to fund the quest for that unity for which Christ prayed (John 17:21...
...The "historic episcopate" proved to be that ground for the Lutherans...
...Thus had H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, envisioned the effects of his church's entering into full communion with the Episcopal church...
...The concordat, published in 1991, was the product of dialogues and agreements between Lutherans and Episcopalians over nearly three decades...
...Proponents argued that classical Lutheranism had never rejected episcopacy in principal but only its abuses...
...It was not going to be a merger of the two churches, each with rich and diverse traditions...
...Jon Nilson HALF A LOAF Lutherans draw a line What a testimony it would be, in the midst of this balkanized society, i f two churches, long separated, could affirm each other and begin to knit up the ministries that have so long been divided...
...Rome's ecumenical commitment means that, sooner or later, it must assess the status of churches which, like the ELCA, do not maintain the historic episcopate...
...The doctrinal, liturgical, and canonical complexities of moving toward full communion were to be handled by a joint commission...
...It would be a prophetic sign...
...LI Jon Nilson teaches at Loyola University Chicago and is a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States...
...The deeper the pain, the fewer the words...
...Both were already scheduled to meet this summer in Philadelphia, one month apart...
...Rather, at the end of the process outlined in the concordat, they would "share one ordained ministry in two churches that are in full communion, still autonomous in structure yet interdependent in doctrine, mission, and ministry" (Concordat, no...
...In official Roman Catholic teaching, however, historic succession is both a sign and a guarantee of the apostolicity of the church...
...Sharing in one ordained ministry would result from the concordat's declaration that each church recognized the full authenticity of the other's ministry...
...In June, the concordat's chances looked good, although opposition was growing...
...Episcopal church approval required the vote of its general convention...
...a sign that things do not have to remain as they are...
...This sharing would be extended and consolidated by its provision that all future ordination of a bishop in one church would involve at least three bishops from the other church...
...One month later, though, an historic opportunity was lost by just six votes...
...The reason-and the key to the concordat itself-was mutual recognition...
...Succession signifies and serves apostolicity...
...Commonweal 1 2 September 12, 1997...
...Why was the concordat put to a vote when a number of important details still remained unsettled...
...Church leaders felt that nearly thirty years of dialogue had prepared each church to declare that it recognized in the other "the essentials of the one catholic and apostolic faith...
...It is not optional or negotiable...
...The future of its relationship with the Episcopal church is murky...
...At the grassroots, Lutherans and Episcopalians would experience the concordat most vividly in Eucharistic celebrations by Lutheran clergy in Episcopal parishes and vice versa...
...Many Catholic theologians find this approach persuasive...
...The concordat would have energized the ecumenical movement, now perceived as moribund...
...Appropriately, then, the first report was terse...
...This year, 1997, was chosen as the year of decision by both groups...
...As decision time approached, conferences, debates, books, and on-line discussions helped to clarify the meaning and implications of "full communion...
...When the Episcopal church overwhelmingly approved it in July, many saw ELCA approval as a foregone conclusion...
...Yet if apostolicity means more than just having bishops, and if the essentials of the faith were found in a church without bishops in the historic succession, wouldn't unity still be possible...
...The ELCA, however, maintains a single ordained ministry, pastor...
...Like the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, the Episcopal church has a "three-fold ordained ministry," bishop, priest, and deacon...
...it does not guarantee it...
...In two sentences, the ELCA stated that its churchwide assembly had rejected the "Concordat of Agreement" by a slim six-vote margin...
...Opponents insisted that unity requires only agreement on the teaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments...
...No doubt, much has been lost by the ELCA vote...
...ELCA bishops are pastors who are elected to an office of oversight for a limited term...
...They argued that a church can be apostolic in its teaching, worship, and practice, even though it lacks bishops in the historic succession...
...Though many details remained unclear, the concordat was widely regarded as one of the most theologically responsible, pastorally prudent, and ecumenically powerful initiatives in the quest for church unity...
...Faced with the same issue, the architects of the concordat distinguished between apostolicity and apostolic succession...
...The "historic episcopate," the succession of bishops that goes back to the Apostles, is deemed an essential element of the church...
...If each church maintained and taught "the essentials of the one catholic and apostolic faith," on what ground could either refuse full communion...
...Moreover, the concordat would add the three-fold ordained ministry, making their egalitarian church a hierarchy...
...It would also have challenged the Roman Catholic church to re-examine its understanding of episcopacy...
Vol. 124 • September 1997 • No. 15
