Lutherans OK Pact With 3 Groups, Reject Episcopal Tie

In votes that signaled both progress and a setback in the decades-long quest for Christian unity, the nation’s largest Lutheran church Monday agreed to share Communion and clergy with three major Protestant denominations but narrowly rejected a similar pact with the Episcopal Church.

Delegates to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America assembly in Philadelphia voted overwhelmingly to end centuries of division with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America.

Together the four church groups have 10 million members. The Lutheran vote Monday means that the churches will for the first time officially recognize the validity of each other’s clergy and sacraments, a move that opens the door to the sharing of ministers and the Eucharist, or Holy Communion.

But a similar groundbreaking agreement between the Lutherans and the 2.4-million member Episcopal Church fell six votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval by pastors, bishops and lay leaders.

The most formidable obstacle to agreement was differing views on the role of bishops in the two churches, with some Lutheran leaders in the 5.2-million-member denomination expressing concerns that Episcopal bishops wield too much power.

The 684-351 vote stunned Lutheran Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson and others who have long supported the pact, nearly three decades in the making.

“It’s not an overstatement to indicate there are serious feelings of pain, sadness and anger all coupled here in our bishops and voting members, and many tearful exchanges,” said the Rev. Daniel Martensen, Anderson’s ecumenical officer.

In New York, the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said he was saddened.

“An opportunity was created, and I regret that we have missed it,” Browning said.

He predicted “a certain diminishment of enthusiasm” among Episcopalians after they had overwhelmingly approved the same accord last month--only to see it rejected Monday by the Lutherans.

If approved, the Concordat of Agreement would have allowed local congregations to hire pastors from either denomination to serve them. Lutheran pastors would have been able to preside at Episcopal services without the presence of an Episcopal priest, and vice versa. (The agreement would not have covered the 2.2-million-member Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, a separate Lutheran denomination.)

Despite Monday’s defeat, Lutheran and Episcopal leaders pledged to continue cooperative efforts, and there was a move afoot by some proponents at the Evangelical Lutheran Church assembly to bring up the agreement for another vote today.

On Monday, Lutheran pastors and lay members debated the role of bishops, which contrasts sharply between the two denominations.

The Episcopal Church, like the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, grants bishops considerable authority, believing the bishops are part of an unbroken line of succession dating back to the original apostles of Jesus. Episcopalians see “apostolic succession” as evidence of the church’s historical continuity and view their bishops as symbols for local congregations of ties with the larger church.

By contrast, Lutheran bishops have more limited authority and are not considered to be in that historic line. Lutherans have historically been suspicious of hierarchical authority since Martin Luther’s break with the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.

To Lutherans, the only requirement for unity with other Christians is agreement on the preaching of the Gospel and administering of the sacraments, a doctrine laid down in the Augsburg Confession of 1530.

“The goal of ecumenism has never been: ‘You must be like me,’ ” the Rev. Michael Rogness of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., told the assembly Monday. He said that if Lutherans accepted the agreement with Episcopalians “we become Episcopalian and they stay Episcopalian.”

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A second bone of contention during Monday’s debate also involved bishops. The Episcopal Church has three orders of ordained clergy--deacons, priests and bishops. Bishops are consecrated for life. By contrast, Lutherans have only one order, that of pastor. Bishops are elected from the ranks of pastors but serve for a fixed term before resuming their role as pastor.

Under terms of the agreement, the Episcopal Church would have, in effect, accepted the validity of the ordinations of all existing Lutheran pastors and bishops--a decision that caused some concern among Episcopalians and Roman Catholics. But all future Lutheran bishops would have been consecrated by three Episcopal bishops as well as three Lutheran bishops to fold them into the historic episcopate--a move that offended some Lutherans because they said it called into question the validity of existing Lutheran ordinations.

After the agreement was rejected, both Lutheran and Episcopal leaders moved quickly Monday to put the best face on the vote.

Lutheran Bishop Paul W. Egertson of the Southern California West Synod, which includes Los Angeles, said the vote did not represent a negative view of the Episcopal Church so much as a view of how Lutherans believe the Lutheran Church should be organized. Egertson promised to continue ties with local Episcopalians.

The Rt. Rev. Chester L. Talton, suffragan (assistant) bishop of the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese, called the vote disappointing, but said, “I don’t think it means that we give up and stop the things we are doing together.”

Since a 1981 interim agreement, the two denominations have permitted members to partake of each other’s Communion services.

Amid the controversy over the Lutheran-Episcopal impasse, church leaders celebrated the unity agreement between the Lutherans and the three other Protestant groups. The accord stops short of merger--each denomination retains its own identity and organization--but clears the way for unprecedented cooperation.

Lutherans have agreed to a common understanding of the Eucharist with the three groups. Lutherans, like Roman Catholics, believe in the objective presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine of the sacrament. The three other churches have emphasized the presence of Christ in the community--or body of Christ--gathered by the Holy Spirit.

Monday’s vote was the climax of a dramatic summer of ecumenicism among the four churches. The Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America approved the historic pact, known as the Formula of Agreement, in separate votes this summer, although final approval is pending among local Presbyterian bodies.

“Today’s vote marks the decisive milestone in our journey toward unity,” said a joint statement by the four churches.