FOCL SATIS-EST SCHOLARSHIPS GRANTED SAN JOSE, CA
The Rev. Dr. Herbert Schaefer, president of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans (FOCl), announced the awarding of two "Satis Est" scholarships to Pastor Ken Sundet Jones, St Paul, MN, and to Pastor William S. Wiecher, New Platz. New York. Both are the first recipients of a Satis Est Scholarship with its stipend of one thousand dollars for the current school year. The grants were authorized at FOCl's quarterly board meeting, during which Dr. Schaefer described the first recipients:
"Each is different. One was born in Germany, the other in Missouri. One is thirty seven, the other thirty three. One is married and has one child, the other is married and has two children. One serves a two point parish in Iowa, the other a congregation in New York. One is very active in youth work, community service programs, and synodical work, the other is more engaged in theological endeavor, writing and teaching. One is studying at luther Seminary in the field of systematic theology, the other is studying at Fordham University in the field of historical theology.
"They serve similar sized congregations of the ElCA. Both were ordained during the past eight years. Both are actively engaged in making a strong witness to Jesus Christ as proclaimed in the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions. Each is ecumenically minded, but in the sense of unity in diversity, not union. Each is engaged in community ministries, seeing the lord's injunction to universal proclamation as beginning where one is, but extending to the whole world. Both are studying for the doctorate degree, one beginning Masters level, while the other is at the Ph.D. level.
Dr. Schaefer shared the grateful responses of the recipients with the board also: "Pastor Jones wrote, 'It has always been as a response to Christ's promise in my baptism that ! have lived my life in the Church ... My inner call to further study is yet again a response to Christ's Word having its way with this sinner ... lf my studies are about a response to God's Word in Christ and about a discernment of call within the church, then my hope for my future as God's servant must be for faithfulness to the Word and to the call.'
"And Rev. Wiecher replied, 'I welcome the opportunity to remain serving, preaching and teaching in the congregation while pursuing a graduate degree. With respect to my vocational and academic interests, my appreciation and knowledge of the living tradition of the Church increased, both academically and existentially. Within Church History, the study of the Reformation and The Church Fathers emerged forefront. Reflecting my own Lutheran educational background, study of the Reformation era and Martin luther held a special place in my studies. As a Lutheran and in my leading, teaching and preaching in the parish, I understand myself as an Evangelical Catholic of the Augsburg Confession.'''
According to Dr Schaefer, the Satis Est scholarship program of FOCl is to "further the equipping of pastors to preach and teach the Scripture as the source and norm of all theology and life, and rightly to administer the Sacraments in accordance with the Ecumenical Creeds and the Lutheran Confessions. Our program for the theological enhancement of ElCA clergy has been so named," said Schaefer, "forthis is the only principle (Augsburg Confession, chpt. 7) according to which the Lutheran Church is to determine its partnership with other churches in the outreach of the Gospel-'It is sufficient' (satis est).
"The scholarships," Schaefer continued, "are intended for those who profess the infallibility of the Scripture for our salvation. and who hold the Lutheran Confessions to be a true exposition of the Holy Scripture which serve as a guide and test for the study and pursuit of theology. By enabling confessionally faithful pastors to continue their education," Schaefer said, "it is hoped this scholarship program will further 'encourage biblical, evangelical and confessional faithfulness to our Christian heritage within the ELCA,' as FOCL's mission statement affirms. The annual grants are another of FOCL's efforts to help bring the ELCA once again to a strong proclamation of the Gospel of Christ's mission in the world."
He added, "Persons applying for Satis Est scholarships must be pastors serving ELCA congregations and be between the ages of 30 and 55."
The FOCL board authorized the recommendations with the prayer for God's blessings on the two pastors in their studies, on their families and on their congregations.
Addressing the FOCL supporters and fellow-concerned across the nation, Schaefer said, "If you want to be part of this worthwhile endeavor, send a contribution to FOCL, 333 EI Molino Way, San Jose, CA 98119. We feel that there is no better way to help the ELCA be a confessional church than by investing in the training of competent confessional pastors."REWORKING THE CONCORDAT: TOWARD A SOLUTION
By Dr. George MeudekingI
One irritating fact was lost in the emotional dustcloud stirred up when the ELCA Assembly turned back the resolution for Lutheran-Episcopal "full communion," known as The Concordat. That fact was: Lutherans did not reject it! a public affirmation of unity with the Episcopal Church. in the Assembly's! ! negative action. Rather, It was the Episcopal Church which said, "We won't dance with you unless you pipe our tune."! That Church's insistence on "apostolic succession"via the historic ! I episcopate-or no Concordat!- made unity possible only on its terms. "Agree” with us that our church structure is the only finally authentic form of the Church, a form with life-long bishops who get their orders from the consecrating hand of a predecessor bishop in an unbroken link back to the apostles ("apostolic succession") and who alone can ordain priests and deacons into the ministry.
That is our price for establishing unity. Otherwise, no deal! "We'll quit playing hard to get,and we'll even issue a 'temporary waiver' acknowledging the validity of Lutheran eucharistic services and present Lutheran ordinations, if you are willing to promise that our tune, and ours only, will be played when all the present pipers have died off."
If there is a question as to who pants for relationships, and who coyly but adamantinely demurs, remember only how that same ELCA Assembly adopted ecumenical commitments in every direction (except of course, with the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, which seems to be beyond the pale for the ELCA)-with three Reformed denominations and the Roman Catholic Church to boot.
What kind of revised Concordat would be acceptable to both Lutherans and Episcopalians? How could "full communion" be achieved without giving up our treasured Lutheran doctrine of the Church as the priesthood of all believers? One answer to how interchangeability of clergy: could happen-given the intransigency of the Episcopal position-is simply to let the Episcopalian bishops bless (or re-ordain) any Lutheran clergy who are called to serve an Episcopal parish .. This is a solution suggested by Professor Joseph Everson, at California Lutheran University:
We include as an example of such a solution, a synod resolution to be offered at the California West Synod, sent to us by Everson on the internet. He says of its practicality: "We will need to be big enough to allow Lutherans serving I Episcopal parishes to be "re-ordained' or 'episcopally blest;' by an Episcopal bishop. They on the other hand, need to acknowledge the validity of Lutheran eucharistic services and our present Lutheran ordinations, without making it a 'temporary waiver' recognition." The proposed resolution:A Call for a Balanced Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat
WHEREAS churches and synods of the ELCA have been asked to offer suggestions and proposals for a revised Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat, and WHEREAS the first Lutheran Episcopal Concordat proposal was unbalanced, requiring that the ELCA become episcopal in terms of ministry structures (adopting the Episcopalian historic episcopate, adopting an understanding of the office of bishop as a separate lifetime order and status, and accepting a commitment that "the three fold ministry of bishops, presbyters, and deacons in historic succession will be the future pattern of the one ordained ministry"), while requiring no permanent changes in ministry structures within the Episcopal Church),
and WHEREAS the ELCA in its 1993 Churchwide Assembly formally rejected the threefold understanding of ministry, and affirmed that in our Lutheran tradition we have one order of ordained clergy who serve in various ways as servants of the church, be that as pastors, teachers, administrators or bishops,
and WHEREAS the ELCA has repeatedly affirmed the centrality of the gospel celebrated in Word and Sacrament in the local congregation, and an understanding of professional ministry that arises from the needs and the affirmation of local congregations who constitute "the priesthood of all believers,"
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California West Synod memorialize the 1999 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA to affirm a Lutheran Episcopal Concordat that is mutually respectful of both traditions of the Christian family of which we are all a part, and that does not require the ELCA to adopt the Historic Episcopacy as it is understood in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.INSPIRATION
A FOCL-POINT Interview with Dr Herbert Schaefer
[Editor's Note: The President of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans, Dr. Herbert Schaefer, is one of Lutheranism's most prestigious world leaders. A "missionary kid," born in India, he returned there as a missionary and served the South Andhra Church for 10 years. Later he was called to Ethiopia to begin the American Lutheran Church's outreach to Africa. There he organized the Mekane Yesus Church in 1959 with 17000 members, a church which has grown to more than 2 mil/ion members today. Transferring to Lutheran World Federation work in Geneva, Dr. Schaefer served as its Christian Education Secretary, setting up world programs in Christian education. He completed his overseas assignments with a 10 year stint on the faculty of the Lutheran Seminary in Hong Kong. FOCL-POINT asked him to comment on the EL CA 's commitment to bringing the Gospel to all the nations. ]Focl-Pt- From your perspective of a life-time in gospelizing the nations, will you evaluate our ELCA efforts today?
H.Schaefer – As I visit congregations, I am disturbed at the growing lethargy toward proclaiming the Gospel and serving others, especially non-Americans. People complain about the great drop in the number of missionaries sent abroad by the ELCA since the merger. The three churches, just before the merger, employed more than 640 missionaries; now, by one count, we are down to 247 - almost a two-thirds drop. The amount [ of money ] spent on home and world mission has radically dropped percentagewise. Yet both Bishop Chilstrom and Bishop Anderson have maintained that mission is at the heart of the ELCA.
F-Pt- Maybe we aren't clear about what "mission" means?
H.S – Our synod meetings continue to have mission themes. But what do we mean by mission? Do we mean social statements, ecumenical commitments, human rights causes, banning of land mines, abortion issues, new liturgies, homosexual/lesbian affairs, etc.?
In the last analysis, mission is a very personal thing. It is the response of a person to Christ's call, "Whom shall I send?" It is going where He calls, being obedient to him no matter what. It is making Christ known to others, regardless of color, race, nationality, or gender, as the only true God in whom alone there is forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. It means loving others, including those of a different race and nationality.F-Pt- "A very personal thing?"
H.S – Yes. St. Paul says in Romans1 0: 14-17: "How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?" This is an exhortation to each of us to be a missionary
F-Pt- So what's holding us up?
H.S – Lack of knowledge, for one thing! Does the average ELCA congregation member know of those of the ELCA that the Lord has sent? Who knows the name of one of our missionaries, let alone several? Who knows of the thousands kept alive through Lutheran famine relief; or of the thousands of children and youth receiving an education through church/mission schools? Or the thousands being made well through church/mission hospitals? Who hears of the many being freed from evil superstitions and a hopeless existence by hearing the Word of God and coming to saving faith in Christ?
F-Pt- Is it a matter of getting the word out, then?
H.S – In times past, the annual celebration of a mission festival in each congregation was a common practice in both the ALC and LCA. At least once a year members heard the great story of missions taking place around the world. They were inspired to give time, talents and money for God's kingdom work. Today, having a mission festival is almost unthinkable. In our Sierra Pacific Synod a resolution was passed calling upon each congregation to hold an annual mission festival. The congregations of the synod have largely ignored it.
F-Pt- Remind us, what went on at those annual festivals?
H.S – Missionaries, home on a year's furlough, spent nine months speaking in congregations of the church. These missionaries were known and prayed for by thousands in ourchurches. They told of saving a man's life through surgery who had gangrene in his shoulder, of giving sight back to persons who were blind because of cataracts through village operations carried out by missionary doctors, of a young caste man in India who, when challenged by his parents and village priests as to why he became a Christian, answered, "Christ rose from the dead for my sins. Show me any other god who has done this?"
F-Pt- Why don't the missionaries do such deputation work these days?
H.S – Today, missionaries come home on short furloughs and are lucky if they visit even three or four congregations. This is a change in the practice of missions which cannot be helped, but alternatives must be found so that those who proclaim the gospel are known, supported by
prayer and financial giving, and their ranks added to by young people giving their lives in Christ's service.F-Pt- You seem to say that fewer people are interested in becoming missionaries these days? Can you tell us why?
H.S – In times past it was an honor to be called a missionary. Today, among many in the U.S., missionaries are looked at as reactionary "fuddy duddies." Cultural anthropologists have decried the presence of missionaries as disrupting the idyllic native life. Missionaries are blamed for destroying culture, yet in India, for example, who were the earliest and best researchers and writers on Indian beliefs and traditions? Missionaries! The selfless giving of lives spent in serving others, in proclaiming Christ through word and deed is becoming less and less recognized.
F-Pt- It sounds sort of dismal?
H.S – Well, at least we can agree that it is no wonder the church giving has fallen off, or that fewer and fewer persons are feeling the call to full time service in the mission field.
F-Pt- It seems that such a diminishing of interest in telling the Gospel to the whole world, would also reflect itself in our congregational life?
H.S – You answer your own question! Is it any wonder that many congregations, having flourished in the past, are today becoming smaller and smaller? People have simply not heard, therefore they do not know, and therefore they do not respond. Surely we can agree with the old maxim, "Unless you are a missionary, you are a mission field." This is a fact that cannot be questioned.
F-Pt- Can our FOCL-POINT readers do anything to help return our Church to a vital consciousness of its world-mission opportunities?
H.S – You certainly can! Remind everyone that the ELCA annually sponsors four "Global Mission Events" across the nation. These Events are family-oriented, with excellent programs for all ages, and baby-sitting provided. Featured speakers, vibrant community singing, moving worship times, personal conversations and learning opportunities with furloughing missionaries-these are the old "annual mission festivals" come back to life in a new and inspiring form.
F-Pt- Howcanwefindoutmore?
H.S – ASK YOUR PASTOR! Heor she has all the information from ELCA headquarters. The dates for this year:
Dear Editor:
Reader Responses
Dear Editor:
In [the VoL7, NO.5 issuearticle, "After the Concordat"] you have an apparent reference to an observation of mine that used the word ... "fulminated." Really, George! As a writer, and presumably as a lover of the English language, you must have greater respect for the use of words than that. My ... Websterdefines "fulminate" ... (1) to explode suddenly and violently ... (2) ... to denounce something violently." I can assure you, George, that what I said was said in sadness, not violence. I had already seen and been the victim of enough verbal violence before and after the Assembly to last me for quite a while .... But fulminate? That seems to me to be slanted, biased, and potentially slanderous writing.Walter R Bouman, Trinity Seminary, Columbus
Dear Editor:
Although we spend most of our time in Canada, I appreciate the opportunity FOCl POINT gives in keeping up with key issues in the Church. Our situation here is not far different-
with too many manifestations of "caving in to societal pressures." Thanks for your excellent work! Please continue!John B lefsrud M.D.
Edmonton, AB.Dear Editor,
Having known George Muedeking and Herb Schaefer at seminary, I am proud of the part they give in commitment to so worthy a cause. Increase in circulation should be an encouraging sign that dedicated Lutherans are still in the trenches and praying for those who surrendered at Philadelphia.Paul A Schulz, Franklin, WV
Dear Editor,
I thought Muedeking's editorial on the 1997 ElCA national assembly was a gem! Thank you, thank you, for pointing out the fundamental flaw of the Concordat. Sadly, the avoidance of the "Priesthood of All Believers" could easily be termed "selective inattention." The continued absence of the word "congregation" in the Concordat-let alone the thought-sent an unmistakable signal that in today's world it is the clergy, especially the bishops, that really count and make the difference in the life of our church body when it comes to as valid and powerful ministry. The poor laity are onlookers at best. Keep up the good work, all of you committed to FOCL!
I can only hope it's not too late.
Our bishops seems obsessed with obedience to Chicago. If its at all typical, the ecclesiastical deck is already being stacked. And that means, among other things, there will be no forthright debate on the Concordat, in spite of assurances to the contrary.
God help us! And I'm sure that's what that segment of the Episcopal Church must have felt when they announced their decision in July '97 to walk a different theological and ethical path from their more numerous brothers and sisters in a fast-shrinking Episcopal Church.Rev Dr. Paul Braafladt Seattle
Perspectives
Youth and Sex: Sometimes ttakes the secular press to say it best. Meanwhile the church debates sexuality statements condoning the deviancies of the day. Here is the comment from Cal Thomas, from the Washington Times National Weekly Edition, 10/19/ 97:
"One reason so many young people are having sex is the loss of objective moral standards. Their models are adults who abandon integrity about as quickly as they abandon their spouses. In one generation, we have passed from the free distribution of Gideon Bibles to the free distribution of condoms. [Now there's a quotable quote!] The last I checked, none of the admonitions in the Ten Commandments ortheteachings in the New Testament, when followed, cause an unmarried pregnancy or a venereal disease.
Those who say kids are going to 'do it' anyway do not express similar views when it comes to racism, sexism or cheating on tests. Why do we assume kids cannot be persuaded to do the right thing for themselves and others and admonish them to rise above their lower nature?" t
The defeat of the Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat last summer left those who desire a demonstrable unity in the body of Christ-but who know that true doctrine cannot be surrendered without peril-with a responsibility to inform the Church and to seek solutions that do not compromise the faith the ELCA professes. FOCL-POINT is offering a number of articles, authored by distinguished leaders in the ELCA, toward that end ..This is the second in the series:
BEYONDTHE CONCORDAT: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ECUMENISM WITH A MISSIONAL FACE
Dr. James A. Bergquist*
The ELCA Churchwide Assembly, having failed to approve the Concordat by the needed two-thirds vote, took a subsequent action to bring a revised proposal for full communion with The Episcopal Church to the 1999 Churchwide Assembly. In what direction will the revised proposal move?Two Possible Scenarios
Scenario One: The revised proposal could offer more of the same. The key provision of the Concordat centered on the mutual acceptance of the historic episcopate by both churches as defined by the doctrine of apostolic succession. Christianity Today headlined its article on the ELCA Assembly in the phrase, "Role of Bishops Stalls Lutheran-Anglican Unity." Christianity Today got the substance right. But it missed the essential point. What stalled the Concordat was not its position on the functional role of bishops but on the status of bishop. It raised a polity position to a doctrinal position. If the revised proposal for 1999 persists in demanding that such an essentialist status-understanding of bishops bind our practice and doctrine it will continue to leave unresolved serious theological and historical questions put forward in opposition to the Concordat.
If this scenario is followed, it will have at least three negative consequences. It will stimulate further the divisive nature of the proposal. The likely result would be that the energies of the ELCA for yet another biennium will be absorbed by polity concerns. The ELCA will be distracted by a secondary issueapostolic succession-as compared to the primary question of the Church's mission of witness and service.
It will communicate, intended or not, a stance of elitist arrogance. An ELCA action at the last Assembly called for "educational opportunities" during the next two years "to communicate the history, theology, and ecclesiology of both" churches. Will this study process become a re-education and indoctrination process conducted by a leadership already convinced of the correctness of its position? Or will it be an open dialogue uncommitted in advance to the position on the historic episcopate supported by the failed 1997 Concordat?
As a third consequence, it will potentially violate the previous ground rules. The 1997 proposal called for "one binding vote." Will that provision now be set aside? Or will the ELCA find it possible to establish with its partner, The Episcopal Church, a new framework for the discussions?Scenario Two:
The revised proposal, alternatively, could offer a new opportunity for dealing with the question of church unity by concentrating upon the missional dimension.
The mission dimension was not absent from the Concordat. But it took second placetothe required acceptance of a dogma surrounding the historic episcopate. The words "mission" and "witness" do appear in the Concordat and its Introduction, reflecting 50 years of missiological thinking. John 17:2021 is cited, a passage which clearly holds unity and mission together ("that they may all be one ... so that the world may believe.") The late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin gave classic expression to the partnership of unity and mission in his Kerr Lectures of 1952:
I do not think that a resolute dealing with our divisions will come except in the context of a quite new acceptance on the part of all churches of the obligation to bring the Gospel to every creature; nor do I think that the world will believe that Gospel until it sees more evidence of its power to make us one. These two tasks-mission and unity-must be prosecuted together and with indissoluble relation with one another. (The Household of God, 1954, p.174)
Yet when Newbigin gave the lectures, the Glasgow professor who was Newbigin's chairman, told him that he could not make out what Newbigin was trying to say. In 1985 Newbigin ruefully noted that he had lived to see unity and mission "systematically separated and opposed to each other." (Unfinished Agenda, 1985, p.251)
The thrust of the Concordat voted on in 1997 tilted strongly toward unity at the expense of mission. Specifically it slanted toward a limited form of unity, establishing "full communion" on the basis of a mutual acceptance of a theory of apostolic succession. The "mission" envisioned in the Concordat, in effect, made our common mission dependent on a narrow understanding of unity, and a theologically and historically debatable understanding of the office of bishop. It echoed precisely what Newbigin regretted about the 1985 separation of mission and unity.
There is, however, another option before the ELCA and The Episcopal Church. A more clearly articulated missional emphasis could provide an altered framework at two points: the missionary nature of the Church and of the bishop; and an expanded ecumenism rooted in "reconciled diversity." What follows proposes that these two points could provide the substantive framework for the next round of discussions.The Office of Bishop as Mission
The central question which future conversations (and the educational opportunities called for at the ELCA Assembly) need to consider is the full meaning ofthe term "apostolic." The most persistently glaring deficiency of the Lutheran-Episcopal bilaterals of the past-as well as of the Concordat, in my view-remains the overwhelming concentration upon apostolicity in terms of status and not of missionary and theological function.
In his book, Ministry- Leadership in the Community of Jesus Christ (1981), the Roman Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx traces the historical development of ministry and the office of the bishop. He shows that ministry in the New Testament and during the postapostolic era was ministry in the service of the gospel and mission. Only later during the second millennium within the Western and Latin church did "apostolic" acquire its ontological and sacerdotal attributes and become an established dogma. Schillebeeckx writes, "Thus (ministry) is not apostolic so much in the sense of an unbroken chain of apostolic succession in the ministry ... but first of all and in principle in the sense of the apostolicity of the gospel of the community" (p. 31).
The original meaning of the words "apostle," "apostolic," and "apostolate," is clearly derived from the Greek verb apostellein, "to be sent." The classic texts are John 17:18 and John 20:21 : "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." The Latin translation for apostellein is misere, from which comes the word missio or mission. "Sending," "the apostolate," and "mission" are identical terms in the three languages. The earliest apostles functioned and were understood as foundational missionaries. By the second century with the original apostles gone, the question the early church faced was how to be apostolic in their absence.
Under the internal threats of heresy, undernurtured new believers, and the exte rnal th reats of persecution and imperial religious pluralism, the early church faced a clear need for firm teaching authority. In response to these threats, four basic responses emerged: apostolic canon, apostolic creed, apostolic liturgy, and apostolic bishop. This development is traced by Schillebeeckx (cited above) and also by the Anglican scholar, R. H. Fuller, in his A Critical Introduction to the New Testament (1966).
Thus, in addition to the missionary dimension, the term apostolic also acquired a legitimate theological dimension, that of providing the norms for faithfulness to the apostolic teaching.
The historic episcopate, however, in the past as well as in the present, has sadly enough not been a guarantee of right teaching. Schillebeeckx speaks of the amazement within fifth century Christendom "because most of those who held office (at that time already bishops) prized the Arian heresy, while the believing people rescued the church's orthodoxy" (p. 20)
Apostolicity, defined in these terms of faithfulness to the apostolic teaching, remains an essential component of church unity. The ultimate validity of ecumenical action depends upon the presence of two interrelated and inseparable elements: clarity with regard to the apostolic faith as witnessed by the apostolic scriptures; and forthright recognition of the essential missionary nature of the people of God. Any form of unity which betrays either apostolic substance or apostolic mission is a false form of unity.
To confine the discussion of the historic episcopate and apostolic succession in terms of status instead of missionary and teaching function is to ignore the sharp thrust of the original (and abiding) meaning of apostolic.
By the middle ages the connection between apostolic and mission was largely lost. Even the linguistic connection began to disappear. During the 16th century missio began to be used to describe the apostolate while apostolic in connection with bishops more than ever was applied to hierarchical authority, to bishops in apostolic succession whose authority guaranteed the structural continuity of the Church. Thus when the Concordat decreed the acceptance of the historic episcopate it did so on the basis of late development. A third theory of apostolicity overwhelmed the fundamental missional and teaching dimensions. As such what it presented was not a gift (as is being claimed) but a burden.
In today's postmodern worldwith its secularity, its theological pluralism, its ethical relativism, its New Age romanticism-the bedrock of Christian unity remains faithfulness to apostolic substance and apostolic mission. Our future discussions must focus on these two dimensions of the people of God, Christ's body, whose ministry bishops represent. Our agreements on ministry should concentrate on the chief functional roles of bishops-leadership in mission and theology-not on bishops as a sign of unity.An Expanded Ecumenism
In reality, the heretofore proposed form of unity based on the acceptance of the historical episcopate would severely limit ecumenical opportunities in today's global Christian scene. While it could open the door to "full communion" with The Episcopal Church, it would irrevocably close other doors, including openings to our fellow Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod Lutherans. To achieve full communion as a sign of Christian unity it is not necessary to travel the historic episcopate route, as indeed the adoption at the last Assembly of the LutheranReformed, "A Formula of Agreement," demonstrates.
Today's Christian world presents a picture quite different than it did 50 years ago. Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, including a growing array of African and Asian Independent churches, outnumber all other Protestant Christians. The current Protestant conciliar movement, for a variety of complicated historical and theological reasons, has minimal contact with this group of Christians. To remain isolated from these fellow believers, our companions in Christian witness amidst the global acids of modernity, might be viewed as a major failure of true ecumenism.
Today's need is for an expanded ecumenism. Is there a path to be followed as an alternative to the direction of the 1997 Concordat?
Reconciled Diversity During the past two decades the phrase "reconciled diversity" has been put forward as a basis for unity within many ecumenical circles. In an unpublished (to my knowledge) paper by the former Bishop of the American Lutheran Church, Dr. David W. Preus (1997), a vigorous and compelling case is made for this approach to unity. Dr. Preus puts the point in just two sentences:
At personal, congregational, and church body levels "Unity in Reconciled Diversity" requires only agreement in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the right administration of the sacraments. This enables mutual acceptance of each other's churches, sacraments, and ministries, open acceptance of one another as sisters and brothers
in Christ, public welcome to each other at the Lord's Table, and readiness for joint activities where useful.
Dr. Preus goes on to state that "reconciled diversity" allows Christians to acknowledge freely that what unites us is of greater substance than what divides us. It enables us to retain our unique confessional identity and yet affirm openness to the empirical realities of Christian diversity. United in confessing the Lordship of Christ, we may accept each other as fellow believers in the face of vastly diverse polities, liturgies, cultures, and even doctrines. "Churches may differ in all such ways and yet exist together peacefully and joyfully in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church," he asserts.Our Next Steps
What direction will the ELCA now take? The central thesis of Barbara Tuchmann's, The March of Fo/ly(1984), may provide an apt analogy if the thrust of this paper is on track. Tuchmann observed that the cause of misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination: tyranny or oppression, excessive ambition, incompetence or decadence, and folly. She concentrates on the last, folly, using historical examples from Troy to Vietnam. She wrote that to qualify for folly an adopted
policy must meet three criteria. It must be perceived (by some at least) as counterproductive in its own time; a feasible alternative course of action must have been available; and the policy in question must be that of a group, not only an individual, and should persist beyond anyone lifetime. She goes on to describe the pursuit of folly as that kind of wooden-headedness which insists on assessing a situation in terms of preconceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting contrary signs.
The central position of the Concordat may come close to qualifying as folly. Unity based on a particular dogma of the historic episcopate is counterproductive. A feasible alternative is available-unity based on the gospel itself. There is now an opportunity for the vigorous pursuit of ecumenism with a missional face. My hope is that, presented with a radical missionary situation in the West, as well as around the world, as Lutherans we preserve our evangelical identity with a loving openness to the fullness of the visible Body of Christ in today's world. The framework of the forthcoming 1997-99 discussions must be formed by primary attention to apostolic substance and apostolic mission as the calling of the whole people of God.*Dr James Berquist, President of Lutheran Bible Institute Seattle., is a foremost leader in the world-wide ecumencial scene. He served as the Assoc. Director of the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches for a number of years, was a faculty member of the Gurukul Theological Seminary in Madras, India, Dean of the Faculty at the ELCA Trinity Seminary in Ohio, and Executive Director of the Division for Outreach of the ELCA.