By Dr. Paul Berge
The ELCA is a young church, not yet nine years old. In just a few months it is being asked to make a decision on the Lutheran Episcopal Concordat of Agreement which would force the ELCA to make constitutional changes that will determine the shape of ministry and theology of the ELCA for the rest of its life. As late as November 2,1996, changes were made in the document. For example, the opening paragraph of the Concordat now reads and calls for "one binding vote"ù "without further vote on the Concordat" by both churches. The word "binding"was added then, and should be a warning of the rigidity of the Agreement.
I was one of the eight members representing the ELCA on the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue. It held 14meetings from December 1983 to January 1991. At the final meeting the vote for approval on the original Concordat was unanimous among the Episcopal members. But the vote of the ELCA delegation was deeply divided – five members for and three opposed. The ELCA delegation was thus one vote from not approving this proposed Concordat. A Dissenting Report was written in response to the original Concordat, in January 1991. Since a Revision of the Concordat was made in November 1996, this Dissenting Report is not a part of the present study document on the Concordat.
The last sentence of the dissenting report indicates the reason our ELCA delegates are gathered here this evening. The Concordat, as the sentence says, has indeed provoked "controversy and division" within the ELCA. May I share four of the objections that have been raised to the Concordat.
NUMBER 1.
The Concordat clearly says that the threefold ministry of bishop, priest-pastor and deacon "will be the future pattern of the one ordained ministry of Word and Sacrament."(Sec. 3). This mandated threefold ministry of the
This LETTER is being circulated in the ELCA, authored by prominent lay persons. We report it as a newsworthy effort to bring a major issue before the Church, an issue with which the Church will deal at its 1997 Church-wide Assembly. The board of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans (FOCL) took action to express the belief that its wide distribution is warranted.
The purpose of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is to make Christ known. Will the Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat of Agreement forward us in that mission? We do not think so.
Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions are our guides in this matter. They commit us only to the Word preached and administered in the sacraments, and leave us insistently free in alt else for the sake of mission and ministry. Indeed, they prohibit us from binding ourselves to any form of
Concordat was presented and decisively rejected by an 80% vote of the 1993 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, after a five-year commissioned study of ministry carried on in the ELCA from 1988 to 1993. To adopt the Concordat now would reverse the decision the ELCA has already made on its understanding of ministry.
Wore importantly, there is no warrant in the New Testament for any one particular form of church ministry or government. The Concordat's insistence on its understanding of ministry and order is contrary to the Lutheran view of the Church, as stated in Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession, a primary statement of our Lutheran faith. I know there are those who say that the Reformation took place a long time ago and is now superseded, and that a wooden understanding of Article 7 needs to be replaced.
But I believe that Article 7 was far ahead of its time, that it meant what it said, and that it says clearly what it says to the Church today: "For IT IS SUFFICIENT FOR THE TRUE UNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine Word. It is not necessary for the true unity of the Christian church that ceremonies, instituted by men, should be observed uniformly in all places."
NUMBER 2.
Contrary to this Reformation understanding, the Concordat requires that in conformity with Episcopal church practice, only bishops shall ordain all clergy (Section 5). "No persons are allowed to exercise the offices of bishop, priest ordeacon in this Church unless theyare 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." In the Concordat, the Episcopal Church consents to a "temporary suspension" of this unconditioned ordination requirement "in order to secure the future implementation of the [requirement] within the eventuallyfully integrated ministries.'
This section demands that the ELCA adopt a hierarchical and sacramental understanding of ministry. Itassertsthatonlyabishop ordained in the historic episcopate can guarantee apostolicity in pastoral/priestly ordination and administration of the sacraments.
Essentially this says, "When you see the bishop, you see the church." Pastors may participate in the laying on of hands at ordination, but ordination can only be conferred by a bishop in "episcopal" – the so-called "apostolic" – succession.
But the ELCA does not have and does not subscribe to such an understanding of ministry. It reaffirmed its own non-hierarchical understanding of ministry at the 1993 Assembly mentioned above. Also,
ELCA bishops are not in "historic succession," and finally, they are elected for term callsùNOT for life. All three of these changes would be required eventually if the Concordat were adopted, and all of them were rejected intheELCA's 1993 Assembly action on the study of ministry.
We should note also that in the revised Concordat, "diaconal ministers" are not to be ordained in the interim before "full communion:" (Section 3, ft.note 7). Over time the ELCA will be asked to ordain "deacons," a new order the ELCA must create, as Section 3, U1) insists. Once more, we have already decisively rejected this in our ELCA ministry study.
Also tucked away infl 4, ft.note 13, is the statement that "Lutheran bishops will (not) have greater authority" or"have powers which they do not now have." But then, what is "greater" authority or power, if not the mandate thaf'only bishops shall ordain all clergy?" The present ELCA practice is that Lutheran bishops may authorize pastors to ordain. It is commonly practicedùas the ordination in which I participated last Sunday. In the revised text of the Concordat, however, it is stated that full communion will be realized in "the achieving of full interchangeability of ordained episcopal ministries (Section 14). The word "episcopal" has been added in the revision. This will require the ELCA to make constitutional changes to accommodate "episcopal" ministryù which will have to be the threefold ministry of ordained bishops, pastors/ priests, and deaconsùthe form of ministry to be required for "full communion."
Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Kung, writes in his book, Christianity, "An uninterrupted sequence of "laying on of hands" from the apostles to the bishops of today, an unbroken chain of succession, cannot be demonstrated historically. Apostolic succession is rooted wholly in the proclamation of the gospel." (p 124-25) Hans Kung is on target. The Concordat has missed it by a country mile.
NUMBER 3.
The Concordat agrees the Episcopal Church can temporarily suspend its 17th century rule of bishop-only ordinations during the interim time so that there might be "full interchangeability and reciprocity" for ELCA clergy before "full communion" is achieved. In turn, the ELCA must give up permanently its confessional heritage, by not requiring Episcopal clergy who might serve in it, to subscribe to the Augsburg Confession.
The Lutheran Church, however, is a "confessional church." It protects its people from false teachings by requiring its clergy to follow the faith expressed in its first public statement of belief, the Augsburg Confession. If clergy of other denominations, like the Episcopal, will be accredited by the ELCA without even a professed agreement with the Lutheran understanding of Christianity, we have not only horse-trading, but bad horse-trading at that!
In terms of church structure and theology, "Lutherans will become Episcopalians and Episcopalians will remain Episcopalians." Lutherans would have to accept the doctrine that the church can only exist where and when a bishop functions, in flat contradiction to their proclaimed Confession; while Episcopalians will be asked for no subscription to any proclaimed faith whatsoever in order to serve in a Lutheran-sponsored witness of the Word.
An Episcopal member of the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue said in a supporting essay to the Dialogue that "Anglicans [the name for the world-wide Episcopal Church] would have serious reservations about the claim that justification by faith is 'the chief article in the Christian life,' or 'the chief teaching in the church.'...Anglicans would be quite reluctant to claim that any one particular article of the Christian faith stands out above all other." (Supporting Essays" p. 137).
Here is a fundamental disagreement which the Concordat seeks to obliterate. In the recent trial of Bishop Righter, for example, the Ecclesial Court of the Episcopal Church absolved him from the charge of heresy with the judgment, "We are not a confessional church."
Anglican self-identity occurs through the use of the Book of Common Prayer. It includes the statementofthe House of Bishops of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, (1886) which identifies four principles that are "essential to the restoration of unity," for Anglicans. The fourth is "The Historic Episcopate."[see Book of Common Prayer, 1979,pp.876-78]
NUMBER 4.
You will hear it widely said by those pushing for acceptance of the Concordat in the ELCA that it will "further our common mission." If you think the merger creating the ELCAa decade ago has drained off missionary energy, wait until you see the effect of this Agreement!
The Concordat has already been divisive in the ELCA, as such agreements have been elsewhere. Most recently the Scandinavian churches divided over this issue with the Norwegian and Swedish Churches splitting with the Danish Lutheran Church.
Furthermore, the Concordat will inhibit our relations with other Protestants, as well as with Roman and Orthodox Catholics, The Anglican "historic episcopate" is not recognized by either the Roman Catholics or the Orthodox who have their own "historic episcopate."
In plain terms, the argument that the historic episcopate is a sign of unity in the church is simply not the case. Thus the issue for U.S. Lutherans is this – "Why turn off the main ecumenical highway into this cul-de-sac?" How can this proposal at all be sensible if it rules out the participation of three-fourths of the Christians of the world in these other communions?"
Evidence accumulates in the United States and elsewhere that agreements like this do not advance, but rather hinder us in mission. The dramatically increasing pluralism of our mission field invites us to diversity and inclusivity, not the circling of the ecclesiastical wagons. We need ministry, not an exhausting fuss over the forms of ministry.
This is a day for the Great Commission and a call for the active apostolicity of a confessional church in mission – centered in what makes Christ known. The only bishop who can guarantee success in mission is Jesus Christ Himself, "the Great Shepherd of the sheep."(Hebrews 13:20)
The famed Lutheran theologian, Conrad Bergendoff, can help us here, as he speaks of the unity Lutherans have already:
"We have not created this unity – we have discovered it. We thank God for it. Because it is there, we feel our separate synodical organizations are not justified as in the past. But, and this is the most important fact in all our discussion, our unity is in our faith, apart from our separate organizations. It is evident that unity is not dependent on organization, but organization depends on unity....Let us not confuse essential oneness in faith with some kind of synodical officialdom.'
The New Testament understanding of the Gospel will not be set forth in any binding legal document that mandates something yet to be achieved. As Bergendoff says, Christians discover their unity. If the Concordat's "full communion" were a term found in the New Testament, it would be expressed solely in the freedom of the Gospel, centered in the God-given unity that is already present with those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. This is not something we achieve; it is gifted to the Christian community across denominational lines right now. St Paul would tell us what he told the Galatians: "You are all one in Christ Jesus."
* Dr Berge is Professor of New Testament at Luther Theological Seminary, St Paul and a member of the ELCA's team for the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue. His article is substantively the address he gave to the Twin City area delegates to the 1997 Church-Wide Assembly which will act on the Concordat of Agreement submitted to the ELCA for approval.