Atherton, J. Christianity and the Market. London: SPCK, 1992.
Hilton, B. The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought 1785–1865. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1988.
Stackhouse, M. Public Theology and Political Economy. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.B.Eerdmans, 1987.
Weber, M. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Allen and Unwin, 1985.
PETER SEDGWICK
ECUMENICAL AGREEMENTS
The twentieth century has been the era of ecumenism, the effort, both formal and informal, both domestic and international, to bridge the chasms that have divided not only the various Protestant churches but Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches as well. The goals of these ecumenical efforts has ranged from organizing common local activities, such as ecumenical Thanksgiving Day services in the United States, to “altar and pulpit fellowship,” where the churches involved allow exchange of clergy both for preaching and celebrating the Lord’s Supper. An important aspect of the twentieth century ecumenical momentum has been the organizational merger of different denominations, such as the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church into the United Church of Christ or the formation of the United Methodist Church. In countries such as Nigeria, Canada, or India, the ecumenical momentum has entailed the formation of “united” or “uniting” churches.
Perhaps the most important, albeit not widely known, phenomenon in this connection has been a number of ecumenical agreements reached in Europe by various churches. The Leuenberg Agreement of 1973 instituted church fellowship or “full mutual recognition” among some 85 Lutheran, Reformed, and United (Lutheran and Reformed) churches all over Europe even including five churches in Argentina and Uruguay. In 1988, agreement was reached in Meissen, Germany, between the CHURCH OF ENGLAND and the 24 Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches in Germany that comprise the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) with regard to pulpit and altar fellowship. The Meissen Common Statement’s six paragraphs identify ten agreements in matters of theology but acknowledge the unresolved difference over the historic episcopal succession. This latter point of unresolved disagreement prevented the mutual recognition of ministries in the Meissen Statement.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Chairmen of the EKD Council and the Church Leaders’ Conference of the Federation (Bishops Kruse and Demke) solemnly signed the Meissen Common Statement in Westminster Abbey in January 1991. A second signing of the Statement took place in February 1991 in Berlin. The two parties declared their intention to “take all possible steps to closer fellowship in as many areas of Christian life and witness as possible, so that all our members together may advance on the way to full, visible unity.”
In 1993, a similar agreement to enter into fellowship was reached at Porvoo, Finland, between the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Church of Wales on the one side and the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches, together with the Lutheran Churches of Iceland, Estonia and Lithuania, on the other. The agreement is named Porvoo after the city in which it was signed.
The agreement covers important points of agreement under six headings. It acknowledges all signatory churches as belonging to the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. The agreement also acknowledges that in the signatory churches the Word of God is authentically preached, and the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are properly administered; that the signatory churches share the common confession of the apostolic faith; that oversight (episcope) is exercised in the signatory churches in various ways in order to express continuity of apostolic life, mission, and ministry; that the episcopal office is valued in the signatory churches as a visible sign of expressing and serving the unity of the church and its continuity in apostolic life, mission, and ministry; that persons epis copally ordained in any of the churches to the office of bishop, priest, or deacon are welcome to serve, by invitation, in the same ministry in the receiving church without reordination; and that bishops from another signatory church normally be invited to participate in the laying on of hands at the ordination of new bishops as a sign of the unity and continuity of the church.
A Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification evoked considerable controversy at its public presentation, especially in Germany, where virtually all Lutheran professors of theology signed a letter of opposition. Nonetheless, it was signed by representatives of the Vatican and the LU-THERAN WORLD FEDERATION On October 31, 1998. It summarized the sixteenth century controversies over this issue as essentially disagreements over language.
In the United States, the agreement of 2001 between the EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA and the EPISCOPAL CHURCH, USA, entitled Called to Common Mission, stipulated that in return for the Episcopal recognition of the legitimacy of current Lutheran ELCA ministry, the ELCA would henceforth ordain candidates for the ministry with a bishop present, and candidates for the office of bishop with an Episcopal bishop present. A temporary Episcopal concession was here matched by a permanent ELCA concession. The Call to Common Mission statement at first did not receive the necessary majority vote by the church-wide assembly of the ELCA. The document had to be submitted to a second vote, where it was approved. The document gave rise to an opposition movement within the ELCA, the Word Alone Network, and it continues to threaten a split in the ELCA.
All in all, these ecumenical initiatives appear to have excited mainly church officials and rarely had significant or meaningful impact on the local congregational level. The explanation may well lie in the reality that on the local, personal level traditional religious antagonisms have long given way to mutual understanding and acceptance, despite continuing theological or ecclesial differences. Moreover, the various agreements have essentially involved only churches of the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican traditions. Thus, large denominations, such as the Baptists, have not been involved.
