CCM - The ELCA In Wonderland
by Mark MenacherAs Alice sat on the bank, a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her. The Rabbit spoke, "Oh dear, I shall be late." He hurried on and popped down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it. Once at the bottom, Alice's adventures began. After tasting a mysterious drink, she shrank in size. Then, eating a cake she grew like a giant. Nibbling a mushroom made her either tall or short.
In Wonderland, Alice came across all sorts of amazing characters and creatures. The capital character was ~he Queen of Hearts who went stomping about and shouting "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" about once in a minute. The Queen said to Alice, "Hold your tongue!" Alice refused. At the top of her voice, the Queen shouted, "Off with her head!"
Nobody moved. Alice replied, "Who cares for you? You're nothing but a pack of cards!" Today, almost nothing in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) can make passions run higher than the topic of "historic Episcopacy." It is the centerpiece of Called to Common Mission (CCM), the controversial ecumenical agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church in the USA. It comes into force on January 1 , 2000
So, why does this "sign of unity" bedevil the ELCA as it does, and why do so many Lutherans find "historic Episcopacy" to be so disagreeable? These questions might be answered more easily if someone could explain what "historic Episcopacy" really is and why the Episcopal Church deems it necessary for "full communion" with other churches.
Driving our human creative ability is imagination. As the story of Alice in Wonderland shows, the imagination knows no bounds. Luther was keenly aware of what the human imagination could do. He said once, "That upon which you hang your heart and entrust it, is actually your god." This means that we human beings create gods and things divine all the time. So, how can we tell true divinity from the gods and idols of our own religious designs?
Luther knew. Whatever is of Christ, His gospel, His sacraments, and His cross can be defined as "Christian". Everything else is the product of a religious (and sinful) imagination. Ernst Kasemann, the eminent New Testament scholar, once described the idea of bishops in historic succession as "one of many Christian fictions." Other Christian fictions would include Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. In relation to Christ, however, these Christian fictions can hardly be called Christian at all. None of them has any biblical foundation. Wearing a Santa Claus suit does not make one a saint. Imagine if henceforth all new clergy ordained in the ELCA were obliged to wear an Easter Bunny outfit. The idea isabsurd. Nevertheless, to opponents of CCM introducing an "historic Episcopate" into the EtCA amounts to the same thing.
Why "historic Episcopacy" for ELCA?
ELCA Presiding Bishop, H. George Anderson, once stated that an ecumenical agreement which excludes "historic Episcopacy" would be considered by the Episcopalians to be "dead on arrival because they see it as part of being in full communion" (The Lutheran, January 1998, p. 48). Why so? Quite simply, the English Parliament and Monarchy have made it so. Remember why the Pilgrims come to the New World? They came for religious freedom. They risked all that they had because they did not want to be part of the Episcopalian Church of England.
According to CCM, the ELCA must now implement the principles of "historic Episcopacy" which guide the ordination rites of the Episcopal Church. These principles are firmly anchored in the 1662 Act of Uniformity of the English Parliament. Through this Act, the legislation designed to eliminate all "non-episcopalian" forms of Christian expression in England and Wales was renewed with a vengeance. Thousands who refused to be "Episcopalian" were persecuted, jailed, and fined. Many hundreds died because of this persecution. Others made it safely to America's shore as Pilgrims. To have "full communion" with the Episcopal Church, the ELCA must now share the "historic Episcopate" mandated by the English Parliament.
While priding itself as a church where "inclusive" workshops abound, the ELCA will now exercise seventeenth-century English religious intolerance against its own future pastors and bishops. By adopting CCM, the ELCA will in certain ways become like the church from which the Pilgrims sought refuge, and future ELCA clergy who refuse to be part of the "historic episcopate" will hear something like the Queen of Hearts saying, "Off with their heads!""Historic Episcopacy" and the Lutheran Confessions
The single most influential theological factor in persuading members of the ELCA to accept an "historic Episcopate" is the erroneous claim that the Lutheran confessional writings refer to it. CCM and its proponents allege that episcopal "historic succession" is the "ecclesiastical and canonical polity" which the Lutheran Reformers in 1530-31 desired to maintain (see Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Article 14). However, this argument faces a problem. Atthattime, in 153031, the notion of "Episcopal succession" was not operational. Instead, a Catholic theologian formulated it around 1538-40, partly in response to the Reformation and partly as a means to reform the medieval Roman church from within.
But when that concept of "Episcopal succession" was advanced, the Lutheran Reformers rejected it out of hand. For example, in 1539 Philip Melanchthon wrote that carnal thinkers "imagine the church to be a state of bishops and bind it to the orderly succession or bishops, as the empires consist of the orderly succession of princes. But the church maintains itself differently. Actually, it is a union not bound to the 'orderly succession,' but to the Word of God." Similarly, in 1541 Luther wrote, "In the church, the succession of bishops does not make a bishop, but the Lord alone is our bishop."
Did the drafters of CCM perhaps make a mistake? One would like to think so. Yet, one of the ELCA's CCM drafters had already been apprised of these historical facts as early as four years previous to the ELCA's adoption of the CCM. The concept here is simple. If Episcopal "historic succession" was not operational in 1530-31, then the Reformers were not referring to it when the Augsburg Confession and its Apology were written. So, why does the text of CCM nevertheless claim the opposite?
CCM offers quite a combination religious fiction, religious intolerance, and the invention of religious history. If ELCA leaders have not been asleep at the switch, then at the very least they have deliberately ignored the exacting theological and confessional tradition which has nurtured them.
Nothing More Important
For confessional Lutherans, nothing is more important than Christ and his lordship over all creation. In Christ and his cross, God has reconciled humanity to Himself in one body (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:16). The Reformation cry of "Christ Alone" revolutionized the church because it offered a flawless way of viewing reality in relation to God our Father, the Creator of all things. Through the corresponding principles of "Word Alone" and "Faith Alone", the Reformers set about proclaiming the gospel with renewed vigor. By insisting upon Christ, His gospel, His sacraments, and His cross as the church's true marks, the Reformers began to peel away the myths and fables which had accumulated in the middle ages regarding the church. As a result, evangelical truth and freedom thrived.
CCM moves the ELCA in the opposite direction from the Reformation. By accepting "historic Episcopacy" as a condition for "full communion" the ELCA says that Christ is not sufficient for unity with the Episcopal Church. This calls
Christ's lordship over his church into question. This runs contrary to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. Also, the introduction of an "historic Episcopate" into the ELCA means binding American Lutheranism to the discredited and false myths which surrounded the medieval church. This will not help make Christ known in the Twenty-first century. And, by conforming to the principles of English religious intolerance, the ELCA has betrayed not only the religious freedoms upon which the United States was founded but more importantly the evangelical freedom won by Christ on the cross.
By adopting CCM, the ELCA has followed a White Rabbit into an ecumenical Wonderland where the reality of Christ in history and language seems to have lost almost all proportion and meaning. Perhaps, one day the ELCA will awaken from this mad dream and return home. Until then. the ELCA requires our earnest prayers and our uncompromising fidelity to Christ Alone.
*Mark Menacher, Ph.D (Univ. of Manchester, England), is pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, in Au Gres, Michigan. He adds to his credentials for exploring this topic, "My wife, Janet, is an Anglican."
WA Director Speaks with FOCL POINT
In it's Winter 2000 Issue, FOCL POINT covered the March 2000 WordAlone Network (WA) constituting convention in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. WordAlone is a Lutheran grassroots confessional movement of reform and resistance arising from the ElCA leadership's imposition of the historic Episcopate after the Denver Churchwide Assembly's adoption of the Lutheran-Episcopal agreement, Called to Common Mission (CCM).
During that convention, attendees approved by-laws and elected a board of directors. The WA board immediately established a formidable agenda and began aggressively enacting its particulars, which included staffing an office and hiring an Executive Director.
Barely one month after arriving in Mahtomedi to oversee the day-to-day efforts of the WordAlone Network, Executive Director Rev. Mark Chavez took time from a busy schedule to talk with FOCL POINT about the challenges WA faces in the months and years ahead.
Chavez, appointed by the WA Board to his post in July, brings impressive credentials. A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Chavez took his M.A. in Politics and Philosophy from England's prestigious Oxford University before serving as an expert in Soviet Affairs with the U.S. Air Force Intelligence Service in Washington, D.C. in the late. 1970's. Setting a Pentagon career aside, he left the military for the ministry, graduating from Luther Northwestern Seminary in 1987. After 12 years as parish pastor at Peace Lutheran in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Chavez accepted a call to Zion Lutheran in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, where he became a prime activist in the movement to resist the imposition of the historic Episcopate.
FOCL POINT caught up with Rev. Chavez at his new office.
FP: Congratulations on your appointment as WA Executive Director, Mark.
Chavez: Thank you. It's still a bit overwhelming, but also very exciting to work with so many committed people across the country.
FP: Have you been able to set any goals yet, and if so, what are they?
Chavez: Yes. I would say first, WA's goal is for Lutherans to return to our original Reformation trajectory: the freedom to proclaim the Gospel and carry out genuine mission. The current within the ELCA today is 180 degrees from that because our leadership works with a definite political and social agenda, and now with CCM the ELCA has returned to bondage under the law.
Second, to insure that the national church body serves congregations, not the other way around. Congregations exist to proclaim the Gospel, not to advance the agenda of a small group of national church leaders. The ELCA is upside down right now, authority from the top down, contrary to 500 years of Lutheran confessional theology. Seemingly forgotten is our Lord's admonition not to "lord it over each other as the Gentiles do."
Finally, we are creating a grassroots network of people and congregations dedicated to these truths ... a pluriform movement like the early Church that maximizes the gifts of our incredibly diverse community of believers, much as Luther imagined.
FP: Practically speaking, what does this mean?
Chavez: Well, as (WA Board Chairman) Roger Eigenfeld recently put it, that means resisting the mandatory imposition of the historic Episcopate, working for fair and representative church governance, and creating an avenue for living within the freedom of the Gospel. One expression of this will be the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC).
FP: What exactly is the LCMC?
Chavez: LCMC will be an association of congregations focused on the proclamation of the gospel where genuine mission work happens, where seminarians can be referred and ordained free from the historic Episcopate, and where pensions and health benefits are available to pastors who choose dual roster status or singular affiliation.
FP: Dual roster status? So congregations will not be forced to choose between the ELCA and LCMC?
Chavez: Correct. Congregations can choose to become LCMC alone, be a part of both the LCMC and ELCA, or stay within the ELCA and work for WordAlone's goals.
FP: Will LCMC, if approved by WA membership in the March 2001 national convention in Phoenix, become a new Lutheran Church?
Chavez: Rather than talking about a new Lutheran Church, I think it's important to visualize a continuum of congregations upset with what goes on in the ELCA. On one end are congregations committed to remaining in the ELCA yet being a continuing confessional voice for change . Towards the center are those fighting for reform who won't leave just yet, but want an affiliate network of confessional congregations outside of the historic Episcopate in which they can live out the freedom of the Gospel. On the other end are those who cannot, for confessional reasons, live within the ELCA and want a new Lutheran church home. All are welcome, and will work together in the WordAlone Network and LCMC.
FP: Will LCMC make statements on significant and controversial issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and quotas?
Chavez: WA already resoundingly rejected quotas at its March 2000 Constituting Convention. I think it's crucial that LCMC consistently takes confessional stands. That's part of what it will be about in the near future. But, at the same time, it will avoid political and social agendas, both liberal and conservative.
FP: Really? If you listen to many CCM supporters, WordAlone is just a bunch of "right- wing extremists . . . "
Chavez: And worse! Seriously, there are people in the WA movement who can be described as conservative, liberal, and middle-of-the-road, which is evident to anyone who reads the Iistserve. It's unique: a true grassroots network of confessional Lutherans with no political or social agendas that seeks reform and renewal based upon Scripture and the Confessions.
FP: How long can the LCMC and the ELCA coexist?
Chavez: I really don't know. Much of it depends on the reaction of the ELCA. Right now, the leadership thinks WA support is minuscule and will eventually go away . . .
FP: Well, how strong is WordAlone support?
Chavez: From all we can tell, given synod assembly votes, WA membership, and reports from around the country, opposition to CCM constitutes half of the ELCA, and what we have discovered is that when people get the facts, when they understand that they are a part of an increasing theologically errant church body, they will speak up, take a stand and resist the disturbing trends within the ELCA.
FP: Do you expect the ELCA, especially as the LCMC grows, at some point, to use the Law and come down hard?
Chavez: At this point, the ELCA seems to have a policy of benign neglect, thinking once CCM is in place, what they perceive as small opposition will fade into obscurity. But yes, when the ELCA leadership sees that their calculated risk has backfired, at that point things become unpredictable. Two things are clear already. The ELCA churchwide assemblies and constitution have become the highest authorities, trumping both Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. Second, with CCM the ELCA has begun returning to canon law. A church that lives by canon law inevitably uses it against its own members. Anything is possible.
FP: Especially as increasing numbers of congregations redirect benevolences away from Chicago and give directly to the groups in need. Does WA encourage redirection of benevolences?
Chavez: WA encourages each congregation to take responsibility in this area, and many others, and prayerfully choose its own course. Luther argued strongly that each congregation should make decisions regarding its benevolent giving. Congregations are responsible for being good stewards of God's money.
FP: What role do you see FOCL playing in this movement to return the ElCA to its confessional roots?
Chavez: A key role, actually. You were one of the first to sound a warning about the direction the ElCA was taking, nine years ago I think. More importantly, you have a broad national audience and a reputation for sound, thoughtful, and scholarly discussions of the core issues plaguing the Church today. The top names in Lutheranism write for FOCL POINT, and people look to FOCL POINT for a reasoned response to the ElCA "party line." You need to continue to educate and inform, and continue to broaden your audience, because the wider the expression of the confessional viewpoint, the more persuasive it is. We're all in this together ...
FP: One last question: what can our FOCL POINT readers do if they want to be involved in the WordAlone movement?
Chavez: First, they can pray that the Holy Spirit will bring about reform and renewal in our churches. Second, they can consider joining the WordAlone Network, if they have not already. Once they join, we will put them on our mailing list and keep them informed about opportunities for involvement and support. Third, they can participate in a regional group of WordAlone. If there is not a regional group in their area, they can call us and we'll help them start one. Finally, they can simply speak the truth at every possible opportunity within their congregation and beyond, and tell their friends about WordAlone.
FP: Thank you for your time, Mark, and may the Lord bless your ministry and do great and marvelous things through it.
SATIS-EST scholarships at any time.
At the September meeting of the FOCL board, Mark Mattes, Ph.D, was awarded a scholarship stipend for further graduate work. He is a graduate of Luther Seminary, has served in pastorates in Wisconsin and Illinois for the ElCA, and is presently Assoc. Prof. of Philosophy and Religion at the ElCA's Grandview College, in Des Moines, IA. FOCL is currently funding three graduate scholarships for ElCA clergy applicants, and is accepting new applications for
These scholarships are awarded for postgraduate work in theological studies, 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 accord with the Lutheran Confessions. Those who profess the infallibility of the Scriptures for our salvation and who hold the Lutheran Confessions to be a true exposition of Holy Scripture, are invited to make an application. By enabling confessionally loyal pastors to continue their education, these scholarships will "encourage biblical, evangelical and confessional faithfulness to our Christian heritage" within the ElCA, thus helping to bring the ElCA once again back to a strong proclamation of the Gospel and of Christ's mission in the world.
Further information and application forms may be secured from the SATIS EST Interim Chair, Mrs Trudy Schaefer, 3099 Island Drive, Redding, CA 96001 [tel: (530) 241-8801] e-mail: schaeferhg@aol.com
Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans
333 Molino Way, San Jose, CA 95119(408) 972-2448 www.FOCLnews.org
Dear Friends in Christ,
On behalf of the FOCL Board of Directors, we are privileged to provide to you, FOCL members, our annual report ofFOCL accomplishments.
But first, to those of you who have supported FOCL through giving of your time, talents, and donations this past year, thanks to you. Without you, a loud Confessional voice for reform would be missing from the ELCA today.
During the Year of Our Lord 2000, the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans (FOCL) continued as an evangelical voice bearing witness to Jesus Christ as the only Savior of humankind, to the centrality of Holy Scripture (both Law and Gospel) as the source and norm for all doctrine, faith and life (within the church and without), and to our Lutheran Confessions as a true statement of faith to which the ELCA must adhere.
We have affirmed there is one God in three persons, that humankind is sinful by nature and in need of salvation, that our Savior Jesus Christ is the only way, truth and life unto salvation, that Holy Scripture is the primary judge of what is good or evil, right or wrong, that we as Christians live our lives under the direction of the Holy Spirit and that we are blest and enriched by the diversity and inclusiveness found in the Church.
Within this commitment, FOCL, in its newsletter, FOCL-Point, published articles on Holy Scripture, "Called to Common Mission," the historic Episcopate, Word Alone network (WA), homosexuality, ecumenical issues, and many other social and political issues of vital importance to Christians today.
FOCL also granted SATIS EST scholarships to three pastors (Rev. Ken SundetJones, Rev. William S.Wiecher and Dr. Mark Mattes) that they might better equip themselves through further study for leadership within church and society.
Of particular note, during the year 2000, FOCL developed its own web site on which there have been over 19,000 hits during the first three months of its existence. We are overwhelmed at this response. We suggest that you check it out for yourself at our web site: www.FOCLnews.org.
Where all this will lead, we do not know. But FOCL will remain an independent body calling all to join us in our mission statement, "encouraging biblical, evangelical and confessional faithfulness to our Christian heritage."
By the continuing support you have given, FOCL has managed to meet its needs this year - but just barely.
Now, we are once again faced with a new year and all its demands on us.
The coming year will be crucial. Even as the ELCA plans to implement the CCM and impose the historic Episcopate throughout the church, beginning January 1st, the new WordAlone Network has established an organization called, "Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ" (LCMC), a body to which disaffected congregations can turn.
Theological study and discussion/reporting and dissemination of information is more necessary than ever - a task to which FoeL is geared.
We pray that each of you who receives FOCL Point will join us in prayer for the ELCA, in witness to the truth and in support for the programs of FOCL. Remember that our challenge is your challenge and our mission is your mission.
As we wrote in our solicitation letter last year: "If you endorse our commitment and intention and if our newsletter and scholarship program speak to your faith and life, a thousand, five hundred, one hundred, fifty or even thirty dollars in not too much to contribute toward making it possible for us to continue issuing FOCL-Point and giving scholarships."
Won't you join us in our prayer for and witness to the ELCA, that it may be rooted again in the centrality of Christ and His Word and faithful to our Lutheran Confessions?
And won't you prayerfully consider supporting the mission and ministry ofFOCL in the coming year, especially at this pivotal moment of decision and crisis in the ELCA?
Dr. Herbert G. Schaefer President, FOCL SchaeferHG@aol.com
George Meudeking, Editor, FOCL-POINT Muedekin@napanet.netPerspectives
The Born-againers:
Among Asian-Americans in 1991,5% had made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that they believed would give them eternal life, according to researcher George Barna. By 1997 that figure has increased to 27 percent. Nationally, the percentage of born-again adults 50 or older has risen from 3141 since 1991, Barna said. It is harder to penetrate the ranks of those under 30. In 1991, 28% of adults ages 18 to 29 had professed faith in Jesus Christ, but today, just 26 percent do.
Barna said, "Baby Busters have proven to be the most gospel-resistant generation the church has seen in many years."
With the ELCA's new-found interest in evangelism (goal: 2000 new congregations 20 years) this research should help point out both the areas of expectations and responsibilities.Russia is shriveling.
Partly because of its staggering rate of abortion, Russia's population, currently about 145 million, is being reduced at a rate "unheard of in the modern era," according to The Associated Press. Population experts expect that within 20 years Russia will have a population smaller than 125 million. It has the world's highest abortion rate, with two of three pregnancies ending in abortion.With an unborn baby killed every 20 seconds in the USA in the name of "pro-choice," should our nation press on to emulate this example? Should the ELCA keep on paying for abortion on demand for its employees through its medical benefits program?
Hanging In There
If the ELCA leaders are to be believed when they insisted that the voters at the ELCA Denver assembly which voted on the CCM, actually ARE the ELCA and are not representatives of its congregations or members, then we have an alarming realization to wrestle with. The vote disclosed that almost 2 million persons in our ELCA are opposed to the agreement with the Episcopalians. If synodical resolutions opposing the CCM are examined in the same way, the figure is even worse-more than 50% of the ELCA is opposed to the now-adopted CCM.Can this blooper be mitigated?
The CCM can be rescinded in the same way it was adopted-by Assembly action. Given the lethargy of the ELCA to "rock the boat" and the control of the voting list by the imposition of quotas, such an early recision dare not be anticipated. Alternatives to the harsh and rigid provisions of the CCM to bring the ELCA into subjection to the Episcopally demanded observance of an "historic Episcopate" are being proposed across the church. Some pathway to spiritual integrity must be provided for those ELCA pastors and congregations who are conscience bound to their oath of loyalty to the Lutheran Confessions, which were so egregiously violated by CCM's adoption.
Two model resolutions for action by the congregations of the ELCA follow.
Flexibility for Bishops
(A Resolution to the ELCA Church Council)
WHEREAS, CCM as adopted by the ELCA and The Episcopal Church mandates that all ELCA bishops be installed/ordained into the historic Episcopate, and that only bishops may preside at ordinations of pastors; and
WHEREAS, numerous constituencies in the ELCA have urged ELCA leaders to create options providing for full participation in the ELCA by bishops and other pastors who cannot accept the mandatory imposition of the historic Episcopate; and
WHEREAS, the ELCA Church Council, at its July 28-30,2000, meeting initiated a process to explore the creation of legal options that would "allow a synodical bishop, in unusual circumstances and with appropriate consultation, to authorize another ELCA pastor to preside at an ordination" of a pastor; and
WHEREAS, unless there is flexibility for bishops as well as for other pastors to remain outside the historic Episcopate, pastors who are ordained outside the historic episcopate will have a marginal status within the church and will likely be deprived of normal service opportunities and mobility options in the church; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that this congregation of the ELCA urge the ELCA Church Council at its November 2000 meeting to develop options allowing permanent flexibility for ELCA bishops to remain outside the historic Episcopate; and be further
RESOLVED, that this congregation direct its president to forward this resolution to the ELCA Church Council for consideration and action.
New Vote on CCM and Threefold Ministry (A Memorial to the Synod Assembly)
WHEREAS, The Episcopal Church openly and directly stated at its 2000 General Convention in Denver, Colorado, that its adoption of Called To Common Mission (CCM) was based on The Episcopal Church and the ELCA " ... having agreed that the threefold ministry of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons in historic succession will be the future pattern of the one ordained' ministry shared corporately within the two churches in full communionŠ" and
WHEREAS, the proposal to ordain diaconal ministers was overwhelmingly rejected by the 1993 ELCA Churchwide Assembly; and
WHEREAS, the Concordat of Agreement, which openly and directly stated that "the threefold ministry of bishops, presbyters, and deacons in historic succession will be the future pattern of the one ordained ministry ... shared corporately within the two churches ... " (Par.3), was rejected by the 1997 ELCA Churchwide Assembly; and
WHEREAS, this open and direct language about the threefold ministry as the future pattern of shared ministry was not included in the narrowly passed CCM at the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly; and
WHEREAS, ELCA leaders have repeatedly assured ELCA members that CCM does not include any expectation or requirement that the ELCA adopt the threefold order of ministry, and the ELCA Bishops' Tucson Resolution (A.1) states clearly that "CCM contains no requirement that the ELCA must eventually adopt the threefold order of ministry;" and
WHEREAS, if open and direct language stating that the ELCA was agreeing to the threefold ministry as the future pattern of shared ministry had been included in CCM, it is likely that the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly would not have adopted CCM; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the ELCA hold a new vote on CCM, employing the same open and direct language that was adopted in its 2000 AD Denver meeting by the Episcopal Church, in order to determine whether the required two-thirds support is truly present in the ELCA for an agreement through CCM that "the threefold ministry of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons in historic succession will be the future pattern of the one ordained ministry shared corporately within the two churches in full comunion"; and be it further
RESOLVED, that this congregation of the ELCA, memorializes the Synod to memorialize the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to hold a new vote on CCM to determine whether the required two-thirds support is truly present in the ELCA for CCM with an explicit acknowledgment of agreement on the threefold ministry as the common future pattern.