ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 21, 2008
United Methodist Church to Consider Full Communion with ELCA
08-049-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) will consider a proposal for full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) when it meets April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas.
The proposal, "Implementing Resolution for Full Communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church," has been years in the making.
Assuming adoption by the UMC General Conference, the ELCA Church Council requested that a formal proposal for full communion with the United Methodist Church be presented at its November 2008 meeting. The council will consider transmitting the proposal for action by the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The assembly meets in Minneapolis Aug. 17-23.
The two churches have had a relationship of "Interim Eucharistic Sharing" since 2005. That relationship called for members to pray for and support each other, to study Scripture together and to learn about each other's traditions.
Full communion means the churches will work for visible unity in Jesus Christ, recognize each other's ministries, work together on a variety of ministry initiatives, and, under certain circumstances, provide for the interchangeability of ordained clergy.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, will preach April 29 at the UMC General Conference and participate in the conference's ecumenical day activities. Staff of ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations will also attend the meeting.
Calling the full communion vote "an important day in the life of our two churches," the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, executive, ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations, said the UMC General Conference vote is expected to be an affirmation of the unity for which Jesus Christ prayed in the Gospel of John 17:21.
"The dialogue between the United Methodist Church and the ELCA has been one that has had my deep interest and support," said McCoid, who was born into a Methodist family.
"Church unity is an important matter for the Christian family. The full communion agreement will deepen the opportunities for shared ministry in so many places, as we look forward to the future," he said.
If adopted by both churches, this will be the first time the ELCA has entered in a relationship of full communion with a church body larger than itself, said the Rev. Allan C. Bjornberg, Lutheran co-chair of the current round of the Lutheran-United Methodist Dialogue and bishop, ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod, Denver.
"In the past decade we have discovered that these agreements provide a very effective framework for joint mission and ministry," Bjornberg said. "While many ELCA and UMC congregations have cordial relations, I sense this new agreement will provide a clear path toward deeper and more effective witness to our gospel
faith."
Both the ELCA and UMC are reforming movements, one of European origin, one American, "which complement each other in the areas of personal piety, social reform and public witness," Bjornberg said. "Our similarities are many, and our theological
differences are variations on the common theme of God's powerful and transforming grace in Jesus Christ," he added.
The ELCA and UMC have been in formal theological dialogue since 1977, which led to the relationship of Interim Eucharistic Sharing.
The ELCA has five full communion relationships. Full communion partner churches are the Episcopal Church, the Moravian Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ. If the UMC General Conference adopts the proposal, this will be the first full communion agreement for the UMC outside of the Methodist tradition, McCoid said.
The ELCA is one of 140 churches in the Lutheran World Federation and is the third-largest Lutheran church in the world with 4.8 million members. The United Methodist Church is a worldwide church with nearly 8 million members in the United States.
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GJ - Note well that the president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, was in awe of Leonard Sweet at a special conference last year. Yes, they taped the love-fest and linked it to their website.
Before that, WELS invited Leonard Sweet to their Church and Change conference. That caused enough turmoil for the conference to be canceled, Church and Change to be utterly destroyed and rooted out forever. That means Church and Change got its own link on the official WELS website and registered people via the WELS website for the last conference. No wonder WELS has a reputation for being harsh, vindictive, and legalistic - but only against confessional Lutherans!
Sweet was the president of the seminary that produced Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the race-bating spiritual mentor of Obama. Sweet's website gushes about Sweet but there is no information about marriage or children. Mrs. Ichabod thinks he is, but I am not sure. Bruce Church reports that Sweet is on his second marriage.
Now that Lutherans have abandoned Luther, the Book of Concord, the efficacy of the Word, and the Means of Grace, they might as well be in full communion with anything and anyone in robes.
