LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 390

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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