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Like-minded: Methodists, Lutherans begin full communion Bill Fentum, Sep 4, 2009
PHOTOS BY ELCA NEWS SERVICE
United Methodist Bishop Gregory Palmer gives the sermon during the Aug. 20 mid-day communion service at the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Minneapolis.
By Bill Fentum Staff Writer
United Methodists and members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America say their full communion agreement will enrich both faith traditions yet affirm their own identities.
The two church traditions celebrated on Aug. 20 a symbol of unity when the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) launched a full communion agreement with the United Methodist Church.
The assembly’s 958-51 vote affirmed action taken at the 2008 United Methodist General Conference, where delegates had voted 864-19 for the agreement.
Full communion means the denominations will formally honor each other’s baptisms and sacraments; their local churches may share in Holy Communion, and United Methodist and ELCA pastors may be appointed to serve in churches of either denomination.
Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, and ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson hugged each other after the vote in Minneapolis, Minn. “You have taken up centuries of differences and found centuries of commonalities,” Bishop Hanson told the assembly.
“Coming to full communion with our brothers and sisters in the ELCA feels like gathering for a family reunion,” said United Methodist Bishop Sharon Rader, chief ecumenical officer for the Council of Bishops, in an e-mail statement. “We have stories to share and common work to engage. It will be a great time.”
The decisions followed three rounds of dialogue since 1977 between teams from both denominations. The ELCA has five other full communion partners, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ.
Meanwhile, it’s the first full communion partnership for the United Methodist Church; more dialogues are underway with the Episcopal Church and other Methodist denominations.
Not a merger
The prospect of Lutheran pastors serving in United Methodist churches raised concerns when the ELCA voted Aug. 21—one day after approving the full communion agreement—to allow non-celibate gays and lesbians to be ordained as Evangelical Lutheran clergy.
However, according to officials in both denominations, all Lutheran clergy considered for United Methodist pulpits will have to meet standards in the UMC’s Book of Discipline, which forbids the ordination or appointment of practicing homosexuals.
“There is no possibility of a gay or lesbian pastor being brought in to lead a United Methodist congregation without violating the Discipline, which our bishops and district superintendents pledge to uphold,” said the Rev. Betty Gamble, a staff executive for the United Methodist General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (GCCUIC).
The Rev. Donald McCoid, executive for ecumenical and interreligious relations for the ELCA, confirmed that full communion is not the same as a merger, and the two sides will respect each other’s theology, doctrine and polity.
“We’re committed to preserving the identities of both denominations,” he said. “Full communion enables us to share our gifts, theologies and practices, but no partner should be changed into something they’re not. That’s affirmed through our agreements.”
But Dr. McCoid hopes the two churches will learn from each other in areas where they aren’t the same. For instance, he said, “the Methodist focus on sanctification”—personal holiness and purification from sin—“will be a great gift to the ELCA. We’ve always emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit, but Methodist teachings on piety, practice and tradition will enrich us as well.”
Methodism will grow from the experience, too, said the Rev. William McDonald, professor of religion at Tennessee Wesleyan College. “As United Methodists we claim to be a sacramental church,” he said, “but we have a lot to learn from Lutherans because they really put the sacraments into practice with weekly Communion and a stronger emphasis on baptism.”
Ecumenism will positively impact Christianity in the 21st century, Dr. McDonald believes, if all sides remain committed to equal partnership.
“There’s a fear that we’re talking about everyone being a different flavor of ice cream,” he said, “and that ecumenism means we’ll set it all out in the sun and let it melt. But it’s just the opposite—a theological conversation between traditions that have to remain firm, to speak to each other constructively.” Core understanding
Some United Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran clergy have already served across denominational lines, mostly in rural areas where small congregations often need to share pastors. In each case, jurisdictional leaders on both sides approve the exchange and pastors agree to honor the traditions of the host denomination.
Full communion has now formalized clergy sharing, and insights gained from the three decades of dialogue will help to keep it in place, says Ms. Gamble.
“Our careful discussions about the official documents, statements and positions of both denominations will help us to answer any questions about putting full communion into practice,” said Ms. Gamble, who took part in the third round of dialogues from 2001-2007.
The talks, she noted, affirmed that both traditions are based on a belief that God’s saving grace and justification—pardon for sin—come only through faith in Christ. “We may express it in different terms or emphasize different phrases,” she said, “but we both have that core understanding.”
Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone set in motion the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s. Two centuries later, a reading of Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans renewed the faith of a young John Wesley, who then began the Methodist movement.
The two traditions view Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, as a fundamental means of grace in which “Christ is truly present . . . shared and received in the forms of bread and wine in the Eucharist,” according to a statement from the dialogue teams. The statement also affirms baptism in both traditions, calling it “the sacrament of entrance into the holy catholic church, not simply a rite of entrance into a particular communion.”
A commission of UMC and ELCA leaders will be assigned to put the agreement into action, developing guidelines for the Communion services, educational events for clergy and lay leaders, and joint mission programs.
“We believe both churches were led to full communion by the Holy Spirit,” said retired United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, who co-chaired the last round of dialogues with ELCA Bishop Allen Bjornberg. “We pray that our local congregations will sense the spirit and say, ‘This gives us an opportunity to do together what we may find difficult or impossible to do alone.’”
Getting started
The denominations had earlier approved an interim period of Eucharistic sharing, urging local churches to hold joint Communion services based on guidelines in “Confessing Our Faith Together,” a document drafted during the dialogues.
Last January, United Methodists and Lutherans in Marion, Ill., decided the time was right. They met Jan. 18 at First UMC to study the document and reunited a week later for Communion at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.
“Humorously, the use of wine versus grape juice figured more in our talks than theology,” said the Rev. Marlin Otte, pastor at Our Redeemer. It’s an issue, he noted, because most Lutheran churches favor wine, while Methodists in the U.S. have used unfermented grape juice since the temperance movement of the 1800s.
Our Redeemer regularly offers grape juice as an alternative, though, for those who abstain from alcohol. So no one had an excuse to back out.
“It was very enriching to come together and worship,” said the Rev. Victor Long, pastor at First UMC. “This is a town of about 15,000 people, so a lot of members in both churches knew each other, and the experience deepened relationships that already existed.”
Two churches in McMinnville, Ore., have drawn together even more closely. Starting in 2005, McMinnville UMC opened its sanctuary at 8 a.m. on Sundays to Trinity Lutheran Church, a congregation that had outgrown its building. The United Methodists continued meeting there at 9 a.m., and some from both groups began a mixed, contemporary worship in the fellowship hall.
The spirit of unity caught on, and the congregations now share the property as co-owners of a nonprofit organization, McMinnville Cooperative Ministries. They still hold separate traditional services and one combined service, each keeping their denominational ties and their individual pastors; throughout the week, they join in missions and small-group Bible studies. “We all bring the best that we have to offer,” said the Rev. Steve Ross, the McMinnville UMC pastor. “It leads to a postmodern awareness, where we explore all sides instead of arguing over who’s right and who’s wrong.”
Mr. Ross also takes part in a monthly “dialogue sermon” with the Trinity Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Mark Pederson. In those sermons the men take turns at the pulpit, tackling subjects from Methodist and Lutheran perspectives.
“Later on,” said Mr. Pederson, “people often tell me, ‘We went home and talked about that ourselves.’ There’s just something about the back-and-forth exchange that encourages more conversation.”
McMinnville’s location in the Pacific Northwest, both men say, makes the ecumenical partnership a little easier. That part of the United States has been called the “None Zone,” based on a 2001 survey in which 63 percent of its population claimed no religious affiliation.
“From my experience,” Mr. Pederson noted, “most people in this region don’t put much stock in denominational loyalties. I’ve heard it said that in the Pacific Northwest, people think about denominations the same way they think of gasoline: They just don’t believe that one brand is superior to another.”
Dr. McDonald of Tennessee Wesleyan is rooted in both traditions. He grew up in a United Methodist congregation in the 1980s, but also attended a Lutheran church and felt both theologies shaped his call to ordained ministry.
Now a United Methodist elder in the Holston Conference, he is also pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in rural Vonore, Tenn. At first he led St. Paul at the invitation of a Lutheran pastor who had resigned. After being interviewed by regional ELCA and UMC leaders, he was formally appointed to the church in 2002.
“It gets a little lonely at times, because not many of us have made this particular cross between Methodism and Lutheranism,” said Dr. McDonald. “But I suspect now there will be many more.”
PHOTOS BY ELCA NEWS SERVICE
By Bill Fentum 
Not a merger 
Getting started 
