We have kept our introduction as simple as possible for the many readers for whom the issues involved are either unfamiliar or who have only a vague understanding of them.

There are a variety of further questions and issues which are presently under discussion by members of the two churches. Those interested in more detail should consult the book "Toward Full Communion" and "Concordat of Agreement", published by both Augsburg and Forward Movement Publications. Other resources for further learning and discussion are listed elsewhere on these pages.

I. THE BACKGROUND

The Lutheran and Anglican communions are blessed in that neither church has ever explicitly condemned the teachings of the other, a rare thing in the history of divided Christianity.
We have many historical links. The Church of Sweden, which maintained the episcopal succession during the Reformation, has been formally in communion with the Anglican churches for many decades. The English reformers were strongly influenced by Luther, and Lutherans in America used English translations of Scripture and prayers from Anglican sources.

In this country, the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (and its predecessors, before they came together to form the ELCA) have been carrying on ecumenical dialogues for thirty years.

Lutheran Episcopal Dialgogues I and II (LED I and II) resulted in the Interim Eucharistic Sharing Agreement of 1982. Many readers will remember taking part in joint Eucharists with neighboring Lutheran churches, alternating between your church and the local Lutheran church.

Now a third series of Lutheran Episcopal Dialogues (LED III) has resulted in a proposal which, if accepted by both our churches at their national meetings in Philadelphia in 1977, would lead to full communion between our churches.

II. THE NEED

What on earth does full communion mean? Can't we already share communion?
Yes, we can now receive communion in each other's churches and celebrate the Eucharist together under certain conditions. But the Concordat would greatly expand this dimension of unity.

On a practical level, full communion would mean that we will each recognize each other's ordained ministries. Lutheran pastors will be able to celebrate the Eucharist in Episcopal Churches and Episcopal priests will be able to celebrate the Eucharist in Lutheran Churches.

This will have a great and immediate practical benefit in places where one or the other church has relatively few members and is unable to support their own clergyperson (e.g. Episcopalians in rural Minnesota and Lutherans in many other parts of the country).

But, more importantly, it will declare to ourselves and to the world, in a more emphatic way, that we both belong to the one church of Christ. It will help us overcome a narrow denominationalism and see ourselves as part of the larger mission of Christ. It will wake us up to the scandal of division in the church of Christ - and to the fact that we have allowed such divisions to continue all these years without feeling terribly embarrassed about it. And it will lead to more and deeper collaboration in the work of ministry.

III. THE CHALLENGE -- THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE

Historically, the major hurdle to full communion between our denominations has been Anglican insistence on the role of "the historic episcopate" and Lutheran insistence on the sufficiency of the Word and Sacraments.
As you follow the discussion in the months ahead you will hear a lot about the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. This was a statement issued first by the American bishops and then ratified by the bishops of the Anglican Communion at Lambeth, spelling out Anglicanism's view of the essential bases for discussions aimed at unity among the churches. The Lutherans have never had a problem with three of them: the Old and New Testaments; the Creeds; and the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. But they stumbled over "the historic episcopate, locally adapted...to the varying needs of the nations and peoples..."

For Anglicans, the historic episcopate declares to us that the Gospel is not only an idea or a proposition or a proclamation, but the animating force of a living community communicated over and over again from one person to another. The bishop, in this succession, is thus a living image of the unity of the faithful in and with God, a unity yet to be consummated but already at work in us across the barriers of time and space. (L. William Countryman, an Episcopal seminary professor, in a paper presented to LED III in June 1984, cited in Toward Full Communion, p. 33.)

Although Lutherans are not opposed to the episcopate in principle, they experienced the power of the episcopate being used at the time of the Reformation to inhibit the true proclamation of the Gospel. They have therefore been reluctant to make the episcopate an essential element of church life, preferring to consider it instead as adiaphora (things often important but never essential to the unity of the church). They did continue to accept the importance of some form of ministry of episcope (oversight) in the church, but have not insisted that it be tied to the historical institution of bishops.

Although these treasured emphases were not so incompatible as to lead to conflict, they nonetheless have, for centuries, stood in the way of full unity between the two traditions. Is the episcopate the sacrament of the church's unity and existence in history or an institution which can all too easily quench the spirit of the living Gospel?

IV. THE SOLUTION -- APOSTOLICITY

The key to overcoming this impasse has been the development of a new understanding of the idea of apostolicity. Scholars and church leaders taking part in the dialogue have come to see apostolicity as a deeper reality underlying both the historic episcopate and the Lutheran insistence on faithfulness to the Gospel.
The second series of dialogues (LED II) defined apostolicity as containing four major strands - faithful teaching, the sacraments, a recognized ministry, and involvement in mission - "the Church's continuity with Christ and the apostles in its movement through history." Apostolic succession is "a dynamic, diverse reality" embracing faithfulness to apostolic teaching; participation in baptism, prayer, and the eucharist; "sharing in the Church's common life of mutual edification and caring, served by an ecclesiastically called and recognized pastoral ministry of Word and sacrament;" and "continuing involvement in the apostolic mission" of the church by proclaiming the gospel through word and deed. Apostolic succession is not to be understood "primarily in terms of historic episcopate."

In other words, the apostolic succession is not only the laying-on-of-hands from one bishop to another over the centuries, but a cord formed by four important strands. While Anglicans have maintained the historic ministry explicity through the episcopate, the historic ministry has also been maintained through the Lutheran tradition as well, even in the absence of bishops. Similarly, while Anglicans have always preached the Gospel, the Lutherans have upheld its centrality most forcefully.

A result of this understanding is that Concordat participants from both churches are now ready to affirm the other church as a church in the apostolic succession, and to affirm the value of each church establishing all four strands in its own communion, and the theological barrier to unity has been removed. Lutherans will now move to ensure that in the future their bishops are in the historic succession, and Episcolians will acknowledge that bishops are not a law unto themselves, but serve under the authority of the Gospel.

Mutual recognition of ministries

But wait! It's not that simple.

In order for Lutheran bishops to become fully incorporated into the historic episcopate, there will need to be Anglican bishops present at future ordinations of Lutheran bishops.

In order for the ministries of Episcopal priests to be recognized by the ELCA, so that they can celebrate at Lutheran services of worship, the ELCA will have to waive the requirement that all pastors sign a statement of acceptance of the Augsburg Confession, the basic statement of Lutheran teaching.

In order for Lutheran pastors to preside at Episcopal eucharistic services, the Episcopal Church will have to suspend the "Preface to the Ordinal of 1662" which says that only those clergy ordained by a bishop in the historic succession can preside at an Episcopal eucharist.

But if future Lutheran bishops must have an Anglican bishop present at their consecrations, doesn't that mean that Anglicans consider their ministries inferior after all? This is one of the primary Lutheran objections to the Concordat.

The solution to these problems is that each church will recognize the ordained ministries of the other as being valid now--even before Lutheran bishops are consecrated with Anglican bishops present, even those Lutheran pastors who have been ordained by bishops not part of the historic succession, even those Episcopal priests who have not subscribed to the Augsburg Confession. In this way, both churches fully recognize the validity of each other's present reality and heritage.

Then, on this basis of mutual recognition, a process can begin which will give to the Lutheran Church the historic episcopal connection which it lost at the Reformation. Similarly, on the basis of this mutual recognition, Episcopal bishops will recognize formally that their episcopate stands under the authority of the Gospel.

V. WINNERS AND LOSERS?

One of the questions being asked most often, by people from both communions, is "Who is giving up more?"
It seems to me that this question shows that the questioner has missed the point of the entire dialogue process. The point of an ecumenical dialogue such as this one is not to horse trade one doctrine for another, or one treasured heritage for another, but to grow into the fullness of what the Church has been and can become.

Through these discussions Lutherans have come to a new appreciation of what the historic episcopate could mean for them, and a way has been found to allow them to share in it without denying their past or present.

Similarly, the Episcopal Church has a chance to appropriate for itself the Lutheran awareness "that the Gospel is always transcendent and never merely identical with any of the institutions to which it has given rise among us; if the institutions fail, that does not mean that the gospel has failed nor that the church has ceased. God is perfectly free to make new beginnings with the people."

Beyond these theological benefits to both churches, there are all of the practical benefits of sharing in the ministry of Christ wherever circumstances make this valuable, and the knowledge that we are being more faithful to Christ's wish that we "all may be one."

So, if such a question is to be asked at all, it should be rephrased as "who will gain more from the Concordat?" The answer to that is both will gain the same thing: a fuller, richer understanding of the church, and a fuller, richer realization of that understanding.

RESOURCES

SOUNDINGS Future issues of Soundings will look at some of the objections which have been raised to the Concordat. Please send brief questions, concerns, or comments about the proposal for use in future stories to Walt Gordon at: Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, 430 Oak Grove St., #306, Minneapolis MN 55403 or by e-mail at Walt.Gordon@ecunet.org.

Books
"Toward Full Communion" and "Concordat of Agreement," 1991, Augsburg, Minneapolis and Forward Movement Publications, Cincinnati. These are the official documents of the Concordat, together in one book. Concordat of Agreement itself is only 10 pages long. Toward Full Communion is the official report of the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue.
Inhabiting Unity: Theological Perspectives on the Proposed Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat, ed. Ephraim Radner and R. R. Reno, 1995, Wm. B. Eerdmans.

Online:
CONCORDAT on Ecunet, has 175 members, from both the Quest and Lutherlink networks, who have been engaging in a respectful online dialogue for half a year. If you are not on Ecunet you cannot join this meeting but you can send comments to it at concordat.topic@ecunet.org. You may wish request to have responses sent to your personal e-mail address.

CONCORDAT HUMOR: Send your Concordat humor to concordat.humor.topic@ecunet.org or to the diocesan office and we will forward it to that meeting.
The Rev. Walt Gordon is Communication Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota and editor of SOUNDINGS.

THE DETAILS
The following summary of the Concordat agreement is adapted from a summary prepared by the Rev. Roger Claxton, a Lutheran pastor who lives in Marshall, Minnesota.

Vote on the Concordat
There shall be one vote, without separate amendment, at each church's national convention to accept or reject the Concordat.
Actions to be taken by both churches

Agreement in the Doctrine of the Faith
The ELCA and the Episcopal Church hereby recognize in each other the essentials of one catholic and apostolic faith, as witnessed in their respective documents. Each church promises to require future ordinands to study each other's basic documents.

Joint participation in the consecration of bishops
As a result of their agreement in faith, both churches agree to the common joint ordination of all future bishops as apostolic missionaries in the historic episcopate for the sake of common mission. The churches will include three bishops from each church in all future ordination of bishops.

Other considerations

Joint commission
Both churches shall establish a joint ecumenical/doctrinal/liturgical commission to moderate these changes and prepare a national service to celebrate the inauguration of this Concordat.

Wider context
There shall be one ministry in geographically overlapping episcopates, open to women as well as men, to married persons as well as to single persons. The historic episcopate can be locally adapted and reformed in the service of the Gospel.

Existing relationships
Each church agrees that the other church shall continue to live in communion with all churches that it is now in communion with. No establishment of new communions is implied.

Other dialogues
Both churches agree that each will continue to engage in dialogue with other churches. There will be consultation with, but not blocking by, the other church.
The unity of the Church is given, not achieved.

Actions to be taken by the Episcopal Church
In light of the agreement, the Episcopal Church hereby recognizes now the full authenticity of the ordained ministries presently existing within the ELCA. EC recognizes pastors and bishops of ELCA as priests within the ELCA

To enable the full communion that is coming into being, the Episcopal Church pledges to begin the process for enacting a temporary suspension, in this case only, of the 17th Century restriction. This is to permit full interchangeability for ELCA clergy without any further ordination or re-ordination whatsoever.

The Episcopal Church endorses the Lutheran affirmation that the historic catholic episcopate under the word of God must always serve the Gospel, and the ultimate authority under which bishops preach and teach is the Gospel itself.

Actions to be taken by the ELCA
The ELCA agrees that its bishops will be ordained, like pastors, for life service of the Gospel. The terms of office may vary, and the ELCA will make necessary liturgical changes so that all bishops will be regular members of the Conference of Bishops.

The ELCA affirms that it does not intend to depart from the historic faith and practice of catholic Christianity. The ELCA agrees to make the necessary changes so that only bishops shall ordain all clergy. Presbyters shall still participate in laying on of hands of presbyters. Joint consultation regarding the diaconate.

In light of the above agreements, ELCA now recognizes the full authenticity of ordained ministries existing within the Episcopal Church. ELCA agrees to enact a dispensations for the Episcopal Church ordinands of subscription to unaltered Augsburg Confession.

Reprinted with permission from SOUNDINGS, the
newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.