# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2001_S390 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 390 ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS——OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT The Porvoo Common Statement in Confessional Lutheran Perspective A Joint Report by the Departments of Systematic Theology of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri In response to a request from President Alvin Barry The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Sent to the congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod by the Commission on Theology and Church Relations July 1999 Foreword N SEPTEMBER 1, 1996, THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND O: to Westminister Abbey and signed a document that declared the Church of England to be in full altar and pulpit fellowship with Baltic and Nordic Lutheran churches. While this event may have passed by the notice of the major media, it cer- tainly should have caused Lutherans throughout the world to take notice. For with a stroke of the pen, ten Anglican and Lutheran churches were effectively merged into one church communion. Commenting on the signing of the Porvoo Statement, Archbishop of Canterbury, George Cary, declared, “Now we’re married.” Given the fact that within our own country The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and three Reformed churches have entered into a similar “marriage,” it is important for our Synod clearly to understand what is involved in these sorts of ecumenical agreements. Needless to say decisions of this importance have con- sequences for the shape of Lutheranism in this country, and around the world. Our pastors need to understand clearly the implications of such decisions. We have an opportunity, perhaps as never be- fore, to articulate a genuine Lutheran confessional perspective. 1 very much appreciate the document that has been produced by the Missouri Synod’s departments of systematic theology. I commend this document to our Synod, as well as to all interested persons. — Dr. A. L. Barry Jude 24-25 The Porvoo Common Statement in Confessional Lutheran Perspective What It Is In October, 1992, the delegates of the Anglican churches of Great Britain and Ireland and of the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches, gathered in the cathedral of Porvoo, Finland, to celebrate a joint eucharist. The occasion was the adoption that month by these delegates of the text of an agreement to be submitted for rat- ification by the participating churches. This “Porvoo Declaration,” together with the explanatory “Porvoo Common Statement,” was the end result of negotiations which had begun in 1989. The effect of its adoption by the churches in question would be the creation of one single ecclesial communion straddling northern Europe from Iceland to the Balties. In the event the Declaration was adopted by the Anglican churches of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and by all the Nordie and Baltic Lutheran churches except Denmark and Latvia. Formal signing was to take place at three eucharistic celebrations planned for Trondheim (Norway), Riga, and London. Tallinn (Es- tonia) had to be substituted for Riga when the Latvian church post- poned action on the matter. The first signing ceremony took place in the Trondheim cathedral on | September 1996, the second on 8 Sep- 2001 Convention Workbook tember in Tallinn, and the third on 28 November in Westminster Abbey. where Queen Elizabeth [] signed the document in person. The actual “Porvoo Declaration” itself—as distinct from the longer “Common Statement” reporting on the discussions—com- prises not quite two printed pages. It embodies six “acknowledg- ments” and ten “commitments.” The former provide, for instance, “that in all our churches the Word of God is authentically preached, and the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist are duly adminis- tered,” and “that the episcopal office is valued and maintained in all our churches as a visible sign. . .”. The ten participating churches further “commit” themselves “to welcome one another’s members to receive sacramental and other pastoral ministrations” and “to re- gard baptized members of all our churches as members of our own.” The clear effect of Porvoo is to merge the ten Anglican and Lutheran churches into one communion and church. The Arch- bishop of Canterbury, George Cary, got it exactly right when he announced: “Now we’re married” (Lutheran World Information, 17/96). Some Theological Issues ON THE 7-POINT FELLOWSHIP SCALE devised by the Faith and Order Conference (Lund, 1952), and ranging from |. Full Commu- nion to 7. Closed Communion, the Porvoo arrangement rates a full [: the commitment “to share a common life in mission and service ...and to share resources,” goes well beyond Point 2 of the Lund scale (“Intercommunion and Intercelebration’’). But what is the basis for this close union and communion of Anglican and Lutheran churches? To answer this question, it is nec- essary first to appreciate the considerable differences in principle between the Anglican and the Lutheran outlooks on the nature and bases of the true unity of the church. This involves fundamentally different understandings of doctrine or confession, and of its proper place in the Christian scheme of things. Then, secondly, it will be necessary to take special notice of two crucial theological specifics, the sacramental presence of the Lord’s body and blood, and the so- called “apostolic succession.” The Anglican and the Lutheran Ecumenical Platforms The Anglican Lambeth “Quadrilateral” of 1888 comprises Holy Scripture, the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, “the two Sacraments” of Baptism and the Holy Supper, and the “Historic Episcopate.” If we compare these four points with the two requirements of Augs- burg Confession VII (‘that the Gospel be unanimously preached in its pure understanding, and that the sacraments be administered in accord with the divine Word”), certain relationships become ap- parent: (1) At first there appears to be a large degree of overlap. (2) Closer examination shows that the Lutheran insistence on the purely preached Gospel (spelt out as “agreement in the doctrine and in all its articles,” in Formula of Concord, SD X, 31) has no counterpart in the Anglican document, which is satisfied instead with Holy Scripture as “the rule and ultimate standard of faith” and the two creeds “as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.” (3) Unlike the Augsburg Confession, which insists that the sacra- ments be administered “in accord with the divine Word,” the Quadrilateral is satisfied with the formalism of “the unfailing use of Christ’s words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.” Also, Lutherans do not dogmatize the number of sacraments, cer- tainly allowing sacramental status also to Holy Absolution. (4) While the first three Anglican points at least cover the same general ground as the two Lutheran essentials, Gospel and sacraments, the “historic episcopate” is something quite different. It clearly belongs among the “human traditions or rites and ceremonies, instituted by men,” in which, according to Augsburg Confession VII, uniformity is “not necessary” for the true unity of the church. Here lies the crucial difference between the Anglican and the Lutheran churches. It is true that “the Anglican and Lutheran