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Evangelical Lutherans celebrate three agreements

On January 27, 2010, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and both the Southern and Northern Provinces of the Moravian Church will celebrate ten years of full communion. A document, One Flock, One Shepherd: Lutheran-Moravian Relations, promotes further conversation and relations between these parties.

Celebrations of the full communion agreement of the ELCA with the United Methodist Church (UMC) will continue throughout 2010 following a special event on Reformation Sunday 2009. Confessing Our Faith Together, the proposal for full communion between the ELCA and the UMC, leaves each free to "pursue additional full communion agreements as each deems appropriate."

The ELCA particularly pursues a model of ecumenism embodied in full communion agreements. See its understanding of these. After a 2008 consultation in which it assessed where it wanted to go in its relationships, ELCA ecumenical officer Donald McCoid (pictured) said that understanding the other churches with which it is in full communion has been an early nurturing stage in its "full communion" relationships, but now it needed to do more with them in areas such as outreach, ministry, education, mission planning, cooperation.

The PC(USA) is in relationship with the ELCA through a Formula of Agreement, which established full communion between the ELCA and three Reformed churches—the PC(USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ—in 1997. In October 2009 Lutherans also celebrated the ten year anniversary of the ecumenically very significant but more limited Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation.

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Bilateral relationships

Reformed-Catholic Dialogue looks at the Eucharist

Should non-Catholic Christians receive the elements at a Catholic Eucharist? In Sacramentum Caritatis, the pope asks them to respect the Catholic view "that eucharistic communion and ecclesial communion are so linked as to make it generally impossible . . . to receive the former without enjoying the latter" (par. 56). Therefore, it is not surprising that, at a May 2008 meeting, when the U.S. Reformed-Catholic dialogue began to discuss the Eucharist, Presbyterian Richard Mouw said that giving attention to ecclesiology could help both sides to clarify their positions. A document in its final form is expected by the fall of 2010. It will address the action of the Holy Spirit in Eucharistic celebration, remembrance (anamnesis), the presence of Christ in Eucharistic action and species, whether the Eucharist is “offered” by the worshiping assembly, and discipleship as fruit of Eucharistic celebration. The report will identify agreements, pastoral recommendations, and outstanding theological divergences. A Catholic report of the dialogue has noted Reformed differences from Catholic practice: "Reformed Christians refrain from the language of offering the Eucharist as a sacrifice to the Father, do not localize Christ’s presence to the elements of bread and wine, and do not preserve the elements beyond the time of worship."

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Co-chairs are Mouw and Catholic bishop Patrick Cooney. Robina Winbush and Martha Moore-Keish (pictured) also represent the PC(USA). Other Reformed come from the Reformed Church of America, the Christian Reformed Church, and the United Church of Christ. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America observes. See a history of forty years of the Reformed-Catholic dialogue.

Reformed-Catholic dialogue agreement on baptism is now archived

In May 2009 the chair of the Catholic bishops' committee on ecumenical and interreligious affairs reported that the bishops had examined a Common Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Baptism growing out of the Catholic-Reformed cialogue and had "voted not to approve it in the form in which it had been adopted." The PC(USA)'s 218th General Assembly (2008) had already approved the agreement and it had been ratified by vote of presbyteries. Now the agreement becomes an archived document without authoritative standing. In order for the document to have become acceptable to the bishops, changes would have been necessary that were not acceptable to the Reformed dialogue partners.

United Methodists share the Eucharist with Episcopalians

In 2006 the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church entered a relationship of interim Eucharistic sharing with the hope the churches would grow together by sharing worship while continuing to study remaining issues. Their growing unity is intended to provide for expanded witness and mission. Make Us One with Christ: A Study Guide was developed for congregations to use as part of the process. Both Methodists and Episcopalians have already shared the Eucharist with Lutherans. 

Episcopalians and Moravians moving toward full communion

In the summer of 2009 the Episcopal Church's General Convention House of Bishops passed a resolution calling for full communion with the Moravian Church in North America, Northern and Southern Provinces. In 2010 each of the two Moravian entities will vote. Nonetheless, Episcopal Church presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has said that sadly many Episcopalians know no Moravians. At a meeting at the Moravian Seminary in November, participants talked about ways the relationship may play out in the parts of the country where both Episcopalians and Moravians are concentrated. Peg Chemberlin (pictured), the current president of the National Council of Churches, is a Moravian minister. See "The Ground of the Unity," a doctrinal statement by the Moravian Church internationally in 1995.

U.S. Catholic-Anglican dialogue is fruitful but more is needed locally

The Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the U.S. (ARC-USA) has been meeting since the 1960s. It will draft an agreed statement in response to the international (ARCIC) "Seattle Document," Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ. It is also working on a Spanish language document to clarify the distinctions between the two churches and point to progress in their relationship. ARC-USA is viewed as an extremely fruitful dialogue but, in addition to formal dialogue, more needs to be done at the local level, said Keith Pecklers during New York City talks in early 2008.

Lutherans and Catholics discuss life after death

The U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue began examining beliefs and practices related to the Christian hope of eternal life in 2005 and is studying the Eucharist, with the hope that there might emerge a joint teaching statement that would acknowledge the mutual confession of the churches of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. "The Eucharist is the place of encounter with Christ who is eternal life," said James Massa, a Catholic staff coordinator for the dialogue. The group last met in October 2008, and the next session will be in March 2009. A significant achievement of the dialogue in the past remains the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, jointly signed in October 1999,

GO TO: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) bilateral relationships

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Other churches' relationships

Ferguson to serve as Episcopal Church ecumenical officer

Upon the retirement of Christopher Epting at the end of 2009 as the deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations for the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Thomas Ferguson (pictured) is serving as the interim ecumenical officer. He had been the associate deputy previously.

Christian Reformed Church repents the racism that marred its history

Christian Reformed Church expands its relations with ot

As part of a June 2007 celebratory worship marking its 150th anniversary, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) offered a prayer of confession repenting the "racism that marred the church's history." It had split with the Reformed Church in America (RCA) in 1857. A month earlier, the CRC's Disaster Response Services and the RCA's World Service signed a partnership agreement intended to make them more effective in North American disaster situations. Many think the two churches are nearly the same in worship style and theology, though some say that, if they came together, there would be difficulties about their differing institutional expressions and struggles over homosexuality. Both are members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The CRC is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals and the RCA is a National Council of Churches member.
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ELCA apologizes for 16th century Lutheran persecution of Anabaptists

In an action affecting their relationship with the Mennonite Church in the U.S., the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has expressed sorrow for the suffering of Anabaptists during 16th century religious disputes and repudiated statements of earlier reformers on the Anabaptists. To read a report from the ELCA-Mennonite Church USA liaison committee, download Right Remembering in Anabaptist-Lutheran Relations.

"Orthodox Church Today" study breaks stereotypes of ecumenical partners

Orthodox churches are in frequent ecumenical groupings with Protestants but remain stereotypically defined by many of them. The "Orthodox Church Today" study seeks to provide groundbreaking insights through being the first national survey-study of ordinary parishioners in the Greek Orthdoxo Archdiocese of America and the Orthodox Church in America. There are numerous references in the report to the inclusion of converts from other Christian communities within the Orthodox community. Section IX (p.125 and following) deals with "religious particularism, ecumenical attitudes and relation to the outisde non-Orthodox community." The study comes from the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute of the Graduate Theological Union.

Oriental Orthodox host Orthodox in prayer service

Hierarchs of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) and of the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches in America (SCOOCH) came together in 2008 to celebrate an annual prayer service for the United Nations at the St. Vartan Armenian cathedral in New York City. Bishop Mercurius of Zaraisk, representing the Moscow Patriarchate, participated in the vespers for the first time as a full member of SCOBA.

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On the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) web site

Committee on Ecumenical Relations: information on this permanent General Assembly committee

The Department of Ecumenical and Agency Relationships, Office of the General Assembly: resources of the office

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On this web site

General Assembly: ecumenical and interfaith business

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ecumenical dialogues

Seeking Justice: ecumenical work on economic and ecological issues

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