by James Solheim
Episcopal News Service

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 to 317 met the requirements of two-thirds of voting members at the Churchwide Assembly in Denver. The document, Called to Common Mission (CCM), was written after the ELCA failed by 6 votes to approve a Concordat of Agreement at its 1997 assembly. A few weeks earlier the Episcopal Church’s General Convention had overwhelmingly approved the Concordat.
In the wake of the 1997 vote, 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.

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."

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.

Issue Dominates Agenda
Well before the Churchwide Assembly convened on August 16 the issue of full communion with the Episcopal Church threatened to dominate the agenda.

Marty said that the drafting team had been sensitive to those who had serious reservations about CCM but, after exploring a number of options, it was clear that none would be acceptable to the Episcopalians. "All alternatives would leave us short of full communion," he told the assembly in an opening plenary. He said that CCM spells out the Lutheran understanding of one ministry of Word and Sacrament and that adopting the historic episcopate would not be a threat to Lutheran traditions or doctrine..
As a church historian, Marty was obviously excited by the potential role for Lutherans in a renewed ecumenical movement. "Our timing is superb," heading into a new century and a new millennium, and "rich in promise."

The Rev. Nancy Curtis of Indiana said that CCM provided exciting possibilities for her ministry in rural northeast Indiana. During a congregational study of the proposal, members noted the similarities between the two churches, especially in liturgy, while expressing some concern about how authority is expressed by leaders in the two churches. Yet they concluded that "we are free as few others" to adapt to innovation and to "be a church in full communion in ways not possible for others."

Mission or Division?
During debate in open plenaries, dozens crowded around 12 microphones on the floor. After a while the similarity of the arguments became numbing but Anderson patiently and graciously guided the proceeding, occasionally using humor to relieve the tension.

CCM is not a mission document, it is a failed paradigm that is more interested in maintenance than mission, argued a man from Ohio. No, CCM provides us a unified Christian witness as we face a new millennium, counters a woman from Florida. And it gives us new partners in mission, argued another.
"Don’t vote against this for trivial reasons," warned Timothy Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley.
Bishop Steven Ullestad of Northeastern Iowa , who has emerged as one of the most articulate proponents of CCM, said that he had changed his mind over the years. Countering the charge that the Episcopal Church is hierarchical, he said, "Episcopalians believe laity is the foundational order," that CCM addressed Lutheran concerns about orders in the church and "we have the opportunity to create an episcopate that is historic and evangelical."

The Wider Context
In what some observers said may have been a critical comment in acceptance of CCM, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation representing 128 member churches in 70 countries and about 60 million members, said that the decision would affect "sister churches around the globe." He predicted that Anglicans and Lutherans in Africa would be in full communion within 5 years, inviting the ELCA to join an international trend.

While it is clear that the ELCA has a serious challenge to heal the clear divisions that emerged in considering CCM, early signs suggested that the opponents would accept the will of the majority "in Christian love" and move forward.
Read more about the ELCA.