Churches Celebrate Unity

Two Protestant denominations are making history this week.

...Members of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are celebrating a unity agreement that took four decades of dialogue to reach. "I never thought I would see this happen," J. Jon Bruno, a bishop of the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese, told The Los Angeles Times.

...Known as "Called to Common Mission," it lets Episcopalians and Lutherans receive communion in each other's parishes, call either an Episcopal or Lutheran minister as their pastor, or share a pastor. Churches also can cooperate in a variety of ministries.

...In the Los Angeles area, hundreds of congregants celebrated Dec. 31 by parading between St. Edmund's Episcopal Church in San Marino and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, three blocks away. They stopped traffic as they crossed a busy street, and some blew horns or banged on tambourines along the way, the Times reported.

...The national celebration takes place Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., where leaders of the two denominations will preside at a communion service at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church. H. George Anderson, the presiding Lutheran bishop, will lead the communion part of the service and Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will preach and preside over the renewal of baptismal vows.

...Live audio of the service will be Webcast starting at 10:30 a.m. on the Faith & Values site. It will be telecast by the Episcopal Cathedral Television Network and the Sky Angel Network.

...Lutherans ratified Called to Common Mission in 1999 and Episcopalians did so in 2000. The agreement recognizes that the churches have much in common theologically, since both emerged from the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century. But their traditions are different: Lutheran traditions are rooted in Germany, Episcopal traditions in England. The denominations have 7.5 million members.

...The agreement is not a merger. The denominations will maintain separate organizations. One difference is the Episcopal belief that bishops are part of an unbroken line of succession from Jesus' apostles, called the "historic episcopate." Anglican churches teach that the historic episcopate is an essential element of the church and insist that pastors can be ordained only by a bishop.

...Lutheran churches in some parts of the world embrace the historic episcopate, but many do not, allowing pastors to be ordained by other pastors or a bishop. Mark Chavez, leader of the Word Alone Network, which opposes the agreement, told Religion News Service that it is based on "a false unity" that violates Lutheran traditions. The denomination will meet in August to try to reach a compromise on the issue of the historic episcopate.

...Lutherans have made similar ecumenical agreements in the past with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the Reformed Church in America.