This is the second jointly sponsored national consultation by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church (EC). The first (1993) dealt with the implications for the ELCA of possible actions on the two proposals for full communion; Concordat of Agreement between the ELCA and the EC, and A Common Calling between the ELCA and three Reformed Churches. The wider involvement of the churches in Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry and in the Consultation On Church Union were also considered. The report from the first consultation is titled The Implications of the Concordat of Agreement and A Common Calling.

The second consultation focused on ecumenical relations of the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches with the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. In a message of greeting, Bishop of the Church H. George Anderson and Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning extended a special welcome "to our international ecumenical guests who will help us reflect on the ecclesiological ramifications of the Concordat here in the U.S.A. and internationally." Most of the participants were Lutheran or Anglican, but Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Reformed and Methodist participants made significant contributions. All hoped that such consultative processes should increase between the churches in the future.

The particular task of this consultation was to explore the effects for the several churches and their ecumenical relations of the proposal that the EC suspend temporarily in this case the seventeenth century restriction in the Preface to the Ordination Rites in the Book of Common Prayer, in effect declaring it to be inapplicable to existing ELCA pastors. Major addresses from Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran theologians probed how the recommendation regarding this restriction was, or was not coherent with the ecclesiology of their tradition. Brief responses to each address initiated the discussions in plenary and in groups, where much of the thinking took place. A drafting group prepared the report which was presented to the plenary and then revised. This short report is to be shared widely with leadership of the sponsoring churches in councils, synods, dioceses, congregations and meetings of the bishops as they consider the implications of their decisions anticipated in 1997.

I. Apostolicity, Communion, and the Unity of the Church

1. The proposed Concordat of Agreement between the Episcopal Church (EC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) aims to bring these churches into a new relation of full communion. In this new relation, the churches will together seek to glorify God and to pursue God's mission in and to the world. Because ordained ministry and the historic episcopate have been issues that have kept our churches apart in the past, much attention is given to them in the Concordat. The Concordat presupposes, however, a comprehensive consensus in the gospel. The Concordat's proposals about ministry and episcopacy are only rightly understood when seen in the light of its understanding of the church and its larger intent to unite the churches into a truly common life of worship and mission. This larger context is particularly important in relation to the concepts of apostolicity and communion.

2. As with many other recent ecumenical documents, the Concordat proceeds from an understanding of apostolicity which applies this concept most directly to the church as a whole. The first Lutheran-Episcopal dialogue in the United States (LED I; 1972) had already affirmed: "apostolicity belongs to the reality of the one holy catholic church; apostolicity is manifested in various ways in all areas of the church's life, and is guarded especially by common confession and through that function of the church designated as episcopŽ (oversight)" (LED I. p. 20). Because apostolicity is manifested in various ways, it cannot be reduced to a single element, whether that element be a particular teaching or continuity of order. Even if some elements of doctrine or order are judged to be indispensable for the apostolic continuity of the church, apostolicity is a complex reality, grounded finally in God's faithfulness to the church, as was stressed by the international Anglican-Lutheran Niagara Report (para. 28, 1988). It states: "To speak of 'apostolic succession' is to speak primarily of characteristics of the whole Church; and to recognize a Church as being `in apostolic succession' is to use not one criterion of discernment, but many" (para. 20).

3. The communion which the Concordat will realize encompasses the entire life of the churches involved. The emphasis on episcopate in the Concordat must not be isolated from this more comprehensive life together. Unity in the ministry of oversight is both a sign of this communion and a means by which it is realized. The joint consecrations of bishops which the Concordat mandates will themselves take place in context of the Eucharist, the feast of unity. They will create a common college of bishops ("Towards Full Communion," para. 78) as a sign and means of unity. Without adopting a merely functional understanding of episcopacy, the Concordat emphasizes the important functions episcopacy plays as a sign and instrument of communion. Unity of episcopal ministry is for the sake of communion in life and mission.

4. The Concordat is thus rooted in the richer ecclesiological understandings of apostolicity and communion in ministry which our churches have come to share within the wider ecumenical movement. This understanding forms a decisive part of the background against which the EC and ELCA now see themselves called to a greater ecumenical flexibility so that they may share with each other (and in the future with others) the gifts God has given them. The ELCA is free to adopt the historic episcopate as a sign and instrument of apostolicity and communion. The EC is free to suspend temporarily in relation to ordained ministers of the ELCA the restriction found in the Preface to its Ordination Rite, which states: "No persons are allowed to exercise the offices of bishop, priest, or deacon in this Church unless they are so ordained, or have already received such ordination with the laying on of hands by bishops who are themselves duly qualified to confer Holy Orders." This suspension is unprecedented in Anglicanism. It both raises questions and opens possibilities. This suspension, its grounds and implications, have been the focus of the consultation and will be the focus of this report.

5. The Concordat is not a concern of our churches alone, but part of a wider ecumenical convergence. The ecumenical commitments of the EC and the ELCA compel them to discuss the Concordat with other churches, especially those with whom they are already in communion or in dialogue. This consultation did not seek official reactions from other churches, but invited knowledgeable representatives from other churches to discuss the Concordat and the proposed suspension of the Ordination Rite's restriction in light of their own understandings of the church. How do they evaluate this proposal in relation of their own ecclesiologies?

II. The Concordat and the Orthodox Churches

6. As frequent and committed participants in ecumenical conversations, Orthodox members of the consultation provided a wide variety of distinct perspectives on elements of the Concordat. The model of ecumenical discussion provided by the Concordat is to be seen as one which might be helpful to the Eastern Orthodox in discussions with the Oriental Orthodox churches. There was, to be sure, an acknowledgement that neither Lutheran nor Episcopal views of apostolic and episcopal ministry are likely to find acceptance among those Orthodox whose views of ordination are shaped by a doctrine to which tactile succession is essential. Nevertheless, other aspects of Orthodox ecclesiology can be seen as in harmony with terms and/or effects of the Concordat. Two examples would be 1) the way in which the agreements of the Concordat are the results of a classical conciliar process, and 2) the potential illumination which an Orthodox eucharistic ecclesiology--"the full church in each place"--could shed on such problems as parallel jurisdictions, ministries, and parishes which would surely occur in full communion between the EC and the ELCA.

7. A stimulating discussion of Orthodox understandings of oikonomia by the Rev. Prof. George Dragas shed particular light on the Concordat's provisions for a temporary suspension of the Ordination Rite's restriction. The concept of economy was offered to the consultation--from the Orthodox side--as an interpretive principle which could be applied to the suspension in question. It would allow the suspension to be seen as a temporary abrogation of a rule for the sake of the ultimate maintenance of that very rule. It requires discernment of what is most true to the gospel in a particular situation. Even within Orthodoxy it is subject to a variety of understandings. Nevertheless, Episcopal members of the consultation particularly found this discussion to be suggestive of a liberating way to approach the matter of the suspension, consistent with the gospel.

III. The Concordat and the Roman Catholic Church

8. The Roman Catholic participants, among them Bishop Karl Lehmann in his paper, appreciated the Concordat as a signpost example of the process of reception leading from dialogue documents to full communion. They welcomed in principle the process by which a common structure of a valid ordained minis- try is to be achieved. This step has the greatest significance for the ecumenical movement at large.

9. It was emphasized that the liturgical dimension in implementing the Concordat (para. 10) is essential, even quasi-constitutive.

10. With regard to the ELCA, it was stressed that its desire and will to re-appropriate the historic episcopate as a sign which it does not claim now to have should be clearly articulated on theological grounds and not understood as simply a matter of expediency. Concerning the temporary suspension of the restriction in its Ordination Rite's Preface, the EC from a Roman Catholic view could act "only if it holds on to the three-fold ministry unequivocally in the sense of its church constitution and views it as necessary, at least for itself" (Bishop Lehmann).

11. Nevertheless, there remains a hesitancy in relation to the Concordat's concrete realization. It is recognized that such a suspension is strictly temporary. It occurs for the sake of the integration of ministries and in order to insure that ordinations in both churches in the future will occur within episcopal succession. It remains, however, a step which is rightly presented as being without precedent. In the Roman Catholic church no models for a solution of the problems involved are immediately apparent and therefore a full evaluation would now be premature.

12. Attention was drawn to the international Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue document "Facing Unity" (1985). The process this document outlines for a reconciliation of ministries parallels in certain respects that of the Concordat. During the discussions it was pointed out that also this earlier proposal encountered similar difficulties in addressing the "period of transition" between, on the one hand, the reciprocal recognition of ministries and the beginning of a jointly exercised episcopÈ and, on the other hand, the establishing of a common ministry. There also no existing model could be named and applied to provide a solution. It was said, however, that "this transition to a common ordained ministry is pre-eminently a gift of God," granted "through God's Spirit," a "period of transition vouchsafed by God." Therefore, during this period "our churches turn resolutely towards the future and leave it to God to judge the past" (para. 137, 139). Such an appeal to God and the Spirit vouchsafing to the churches this period of transition and temporarily suspending judgment on the past, is in its basic attitude not far from what the Concordat proposes.

IV. The Concordat and the Anglican Churches

13. Anglicans at the consultation expressed their appreciation for the proposed Concordat and saw the temporary suspension in the Ordination Rite as a step justified in this case because of the continuity of the Lutheran Reformation, as expressed in the Augsburg Confession, with the traditions of faith through the centuries. On the whole, Anglicans believe that the Lutheran Reformation, like their own, resides within the one ecclesia catholica. They stressed, however, that the purpose of the temporary suspension is the restoration of the historic episcopate for the sake of full communion and sharing in mission.

14. Episcopalians are concerned that this action be seen by other Provinces of the Anglican Communion as congruent with Anglican ecclesiology. In his address to the Consultation, Bishop Stephen Sykes argued that "the Concordat actually embodies a future of great hopefulness for the churches, and not just of North America," and he acknowledged that "the Concordat has remained faithful to the attempted definition of full communion contained in the international Cold Ash document."1 His final judgment on the Concordat was clear:

I would like, therefore, to close this paper by encouraging my sisters and brothers in the Episcopal Church to participate wholeheartedly in the movement of reconciliation represented by the Concordat. It is a kairos in ecumenism when two sister traditions, standing in continuity with the Church of the patristic and medieval periods both directly and through the insights of the Reformation period, are offered the opportunity of embracing a wider unity. Not merely would the reconciled churches strengthen each other; they would also strengthen the witness of what I dare to believe the world needs: testimony to the vitality of the Gospel, fidelity to the trinitarian confession of faith, the orderly celebration of the Gospel sacraments, esteem for God's gift of ordained ministry in his Church, combined with an openness to challenge and reformation in every part of her life.

15. The Episcopal Church's temporary suspension of the restriction in the Preface to the Ordination Rite is exclusively conditioned by the intention to establish communion with the ELCA. It is not, therefore, a general suspension applicable outside an agreement or concordat specifically directed to reunion and restored communion. The Preface to the Anglican Ordinal in the Prayer Book of 1662, which in essence is reaffirmed in the American Prayer Book of 1979, states the normative character of ordination in the episcopal succession. The principle there contained needs to be related to the particular situation addressed in the Concordat and the language of suspension is understood to imply acceptance of this norm by the EC. With these understandings, it was generally agreed that the temporary suspension of the restriction for the sake of unity in apostolic mission is consonant with Anglican ecclesiology and ecumenical intentions.

16. The implementation of the Concordat would lead for the foreseeable future to parallel jurisdictions of Anglican and Lutheran bishops. At present, these bishops are not in full communion and do not officially recognize each other. The Concordat is thus, despite the continued existence of parallel jurisdictions, to be understood as a step in the direction of greater unity rather than a step away from it. The joint participation in consecrations of bishops that will occur is understood in the Concordat as "a call for mutual planning, consultation, and interaction in episcopÈ, mission, teaching, and pastoral care as well as a liturgical expression of the full communion that is being initiated by this Concordat of Agreement" (para. 3). A foretaste of this collegiality is to be seen in the joint meeting of the conferences of bishops of the two churches planned for 1996 and preceded by regional meetings.

V. The Concordat and the Lutheran Churches

17. The Concordat puts before the ELCA the questions whether it wishes to adopt the historic episcopate for the sake of the unity promised in the Concordat and through the means outlined by the Concordat. The proposed temporary suspension of the Ordination Rite's restriction is oriented to the deep conviction of the Lutheran churches that, whatever they may have lost in the divisions that resulted from the Reformation, God has preserved in them the apostolic ministry of Word and Sacrament.

18. As historical papers by Bishop Georg Kretschmar and Professor Harding Meyer emphasized, at the time of the Reformation, Lutherans confessed their "deep desire to maintain the church polity and various ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy although they were created by human authority" (Ap.·14). This desire was not fulfilled for the Lutherans within the Holy Roman Empire and the ELCA makes no claim to stand in the historic episcopate. Of course, the confessions were written in a historical situation quite different from that of today. The bishops about whom the Confessions directly speak were also princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The distortions and abuses which flowed from this reality were of central concern for the Augsburg Confession (see Art. 28). While the Lutherans developed their own understanding of what an evangelical episcopacy should look like, they declared themselves ready for the sake of unity to submit to the authority even of such prince bishops, if such submission did not deny the gospel.

19. The ecclesiastical circumstances of the late twentieth century are quite different from those of the mid sixteenth century. Nevertheless, the Confessions' professed willingness to do "anything, in so far as God and conscience allow, that may serve the cause of Christian unity" (Augsburg Confession, Preface, 13) remains normative. A truly evangelical and historic episcopate, a ministry of oversight that is bound to the Word and that would be a sign and means of apostolic continuity and unity with other churches, remains the desired norm for Lutherans. We are today freed from the impediments of the sixteenth century that hindered the fulfillment of the "deep desire" confessed by the Apology to the Augsburg Confession. The basic ecclesiological principles of the Reformation move us to do all we can to foster the unity of the church, including retaining or regaining that traditional church polity which has served as a sign and means of communion.

VI. Conclusion

20. For the ELCA and the EC, the acceptance of the Concordat will be a decisive movement in our growing together in Christ, but by no means the end of the process. The communion the Concordat describes is full (see footnote 1) and, precisely so, open to further growth and greater depth. The Concordat opens the door to a fuller life together; the churches will then need to live out that life.

21. As this consultation demonstrates, the EC and the ELCA see the Concordat as an event with a significance for other churches. It should represent one important step toward the wider unity of the churches. Most obviously, it is one part of the growing communion between churches of the Anglican and Lutheran communions in many parts of the world (e.g., in Europe through the Porvoo Common Statement and the Meissen Agreement and in Africa through new developments in Eastern and Southern Africa). The Concordat is also intended as a gift to the entire oikumene. It does not address all obstacles to this wider unity (e.g., differences over the universal jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome or over the ordination of men only). Nevertheless, its acceptance and, even more, its implementation in a living communion among our congregations, synods, and dioceses, would be an event our churches would want to offer to the wider church and to the world. It is this wish that has led our churches to call this consultation. We wish to offer the Concordat for the consideration of all churches as they seek to follow the will of Christ that his church may manifest the unity graciously bestowed.

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