CCM - The ELCA In Wonderland

By Dr. Mark Menacher

As 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."