Mainline Churches Pave Road to Joint Communion
United Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians may begin worshiping, studying and evangelizing together as early as next year.
United Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians may begin worshiping, studying and evangelizing together as early as next year.
Last week, United Methodist Church bishops approved interim agreements for sharing the Eucharist with the Episcopal Church USA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, during their weeklong spring meeting in Arlington, Va.,
Should the Lutheran and Episcopalian lawmaking assemblies approve those agreements, the three churches will be sharing communion, studying with one another and being involved in mission together. The UMC will be entering into separate agreements with each of the denominations. The Lutheran and Episcopal churches are also in conversation for communion with each other.
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According to Methodist Bishop William B. Oden, the agreements are “highly significant” because they mark the first time the UMC would share communion with any group outside of the Methodist tradition. The 8-million-member UMC currently is in agreement with the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches.
Oden explained that the agreements are “interim” steps toward a full communion membership.
The interim shared communion agreements authorize and urge United Methodist congregations “to worship and to be in study and mission with our two sister denominations,” Oden said.
Oden expects the interim agreements to be made within a year, and the full communion process by 2012.
“The plan is for us to enter into full communion with the Lutherans at the General Conference of 2008 and with the Episcopalians at the General Conference of 2012,” Oden said.
Once the denominations are in full communion, they will recognize the authenticity of each other’s ministries and be reconciled with one another.
“These agreements are not just about sharing communion with each other; they’re about our recognizing that we are a part of one body of Christ and thus one mission for Christ in this world,” Oden said to the United Methodist News Service. “[these agreements are] a major point in the pathway to full communion, in which we recognize the authenticity and apostolicity of each other’s ministry.
“This is not a movement toward church union, but affirms each denomination’s uniqueness while we worship and work together.”
