Historic episcopate - Creedopedia

Historic episcopate - Creedopedia

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Topic: Historic episcopate

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EIR

It consists in a succession in the episcopal ministry of a local church which itself lives in the continuity of the faith of the apostles and which is overseen by the bishop in order to keep it in the communion of the catholic and apostolic church.
In an historic decision, the Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA, meeting at Denver in August 1999, debated, amended and accepted CCM as "the basis for a relationship of full communion to be established between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America." The vote was 716 to 317, or nearly 70% in favor.
The understanding in CCM is that under the gospel the church is apostolic in that it continues in the succession of the mission given by Christ to the apostles and through them to the church.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/6947_9388_ENG_Print.html (8159 words)



Defending the Orthodox Faith

Hers was a Church of England tethered to the church universal by the authority of Holy Scripture, traditional doctrine, sacraments, and preservation of a historic liturgy.
The unique inheritance of the Episcopal Church was to be part of that Communion that served as a faithful depository of orthodoxy; indeed, the distinguishing nature of Anglicanism is its preservation of historical catholicity.
Understand that to the continental reformers, catholicity was a theological concept before it was a historical one; they saw the essence of catholicity as being in faithfulness to the Gospel and the conduct of the Apostles in the early Church.

http://www.stpaulsepis.org/orthodox.html (6414 words)



"Called to Common Mission" - Questions and Answers

The historic episcopate is the orderly transmission of the office of bishop or overseer, with its roots in the time of the early church.
Lutherans and Episcopalians together affirm "that the historic catholic episcopate under the Word of God must always serve the Gospel, and the ultimate authority under which bishops preach and teach is the Gospel itself." Further, the "canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments" are embraced by both churches.
For both the ELCA and The Episcopal Church, the Gospel is proclaimed with the purpose of announcing "that in Jesus Christ God loves and redeems the world." Both churches also embrace "a common understanding of God's justifying grace" (paragraph 5).

http://elca.org/ecumenical/fullcommunion/episcopal/ccmresources/ccm_q_a.html (4221 words)



ccm ed task force

Episcopal bishops are to participate as a sign of unity between the two churches (CCM 12).
The ECUSA position is that the Historic Episcopate is necessary for salvation, and necessary for a church to be a "true church!"
Background: The Episcopal Historic Episcopate (HE) "refers to a tradition which goes back to the ancient church, in which bishops already in the succession install newly elected bishops with prayer and the laying on of hands.

http://www.churchofthemaster.com/ccm.htm (7906 words)



Issues In Perspective with Dr. Jim Eckman

Where Episcopalians regard the historic episcopate as a safeguard for church unity, the ELCA believes the Word and the sacraments are sufficient for this unity.
Episcopal bishops are elected for life, while ELCA bishops are elected for three-year terms.
In practical terms, though it means that ELCA pastors and Episcopal priests can preside over Holy Communion and other sacraments in respective churches and that there will be greater collaboration between the two churches on many levels.

http://www.issuesinperspective.com/index_529.cfm (1065 words)



Commonweal : Half a loaf

Mutual recognition, however, would have allowed Lutherans to adopt the “historic episcopate” as a means, not an essential, of their church’s proclamation of the gospel, while Episcopalians could state that the ELCA had maintained the essentials of faith, even without the historic episcopate.
Like the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, the Episcopal church has a “three-fold ordained ministry,” bishop, priest, and deacon.
The future of its relationship with the Episcopal church is murky.

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php?id_article=257 (905 words)



EIR

Member communions include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church, International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
The rest of the churches refused to adopt the historic episcopate.
The COCU Consensus and with a subsequent plan for "covenant communion" among the churches.

http://www.er-d.org/6947_548_ENG_Print.html (396 words)



EIR

But they also appreciate the historic episcopate as a good sign, a wholesome way of remembering that the Gospel is carried forward from one generation to the next by faithful pastors and bishops, as well as by faithful lay leaders.
I have never attended worship in an Episcopal church when the bishop of the diocese and the presiding bishop were not remembered in prayer.
But let's ask that devout sister or brother from the Episcopal Church, "Why is the historic episcopate important to you?" I'm quite sure they would say that it's a very positive thing for them and their church.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/6947_561_ENG_Print.html (6434 words)



IN A PREDICTABLE

The 'historic episcopate' exists to express and effect the relationship of each diocese (in the person of its bishop) vertically with the Church of the ages and horizontally with the contemporary world-wide communion.
That there is no such 'tradition' of diocesan autonomy in matters of doctrine or morals, and that the 'historic episcopate' exists, very largely in order to ensure that there is not, is clearly a truth about which the Episcopal Church is in denial.
'The Episcopal Church can be said to be in dispute with Scripture,' opined the Presiding Bishop.

http://trushare.com/60MAY00/my00wayl.htm (910 words)



wfn.org Wartburg Speaker Says Historic Episcopate for Unity, Not Salvation

The Episcopal Church and ELCA "are in agreement in all major issues of faith," Armentrout said.
We do this not because [the historic episcopate] is essential for salvation but for the sake of unity in the church." Armentrout said the historic episcopate symbolizes modern Christians' oneness with God's people of every time and place.
It calls for ELCA bishops to be installed by three bishops who stand in a succession of bishops reaching back to the earliest days of the Christian church.

http://www.wfn.org/2000/04/msg00038.html (555 words)



Welcome to the Church of Norway

The Anglican acknowledgement of the historical Episcopal sees and our practice of consecrations as signs of intention to be an apostolic church were welcomed, but not made a matter of discussion in our church.
The basis for “church fellowship” is understood according to CA7 as agreement in the use and understanding of the Gospel and the sacraments.
The historic episcopal succession is accepted as a sign of continuity and unity of the apostolic Church.

http://www.kirken.no/english/engelsk.cfm?artid=5897 (2770 words)



Thursday Theology #156 - Urban Ministry and the Historic Episcopate

But not once did I hear the phrase "historic episcopate" raised by the 25 or so Episcopalian clergy and lay leaders nor by the rest of us who were Methodist, Lutheran, Church of God in Christ and Church of the Brethren.
The conference was hosted by Calvary Episcopal Church (the Rev. Dr.
It'll be memories of my Episcopalian, Church of God in Christ, Methodist, Baptist, Church of the Brethren and AME sisters and brothers standing together with our hands raised in praise to our God that will keep me in my seat.

http://www.crossings.org/thursday/Thur0607.htm (829 words)



Denver Catholic Register - World/Nation

Martensen said the agreement with the Episcopal Church, however, was the first entry of the ELCA into communion with a church which regards the historic episcopate as a necessary part of its structure.
While some Lutheran churches have continued having their pastors ordained by bishops in the historic episcopate, others have not, and Lutherans do not see the historic episcopate as an essential mark of the church.
Recently the ELCA has entered into full communion agreements with the Moravian Church and three churches in the Reformed tradition - the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Christ.

http://www.archden.org/dcr/archive/20010117/2001011706wn.htm (657 words)



Lutherans in dilemma over Episcopal tradition - Faith

In 1996, the highest court in the Episcopal Church declared that the Historic Episcopate remains an element essential for salvation and for reckoning a church to be a true church.
The Episcopal Church USA additionally requires the Historic Episcopate, a tradition going back to the early church, in which bishops already in succession from apostolic times ordain newly elected bishops with prayer and the laying-on-of-hands.
Article Seven of this 470-year-old document states that for true unity of the church it is enough to agree concerning the teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.

http://www.salisburypost.com/2000march/031800f.htm (1253 words)



CCLEC Publications -- Episcopal Oversight and Ecclesiastical Discipline

In short, the objection is that, in spite of the historic episcopate, the life and doctrine of ECUSA are in such disarray that its links with the one, holy, catholic ;: o:i and apostolic church are in question.
In response to what they believed to be a gross violation of church order, at a special meeting in August of 1974, 23 bishops charged the ordaining bishops with violation of the Constitution and Canons of ECUSA, the rubrics of the Book of Common Praver, and their ordination vows.
The Concordat of Agreement soon to be presented for ratification to the governing bodies of both the Episcopal Church U.S.A. (ECUSA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is the product of over a quarter century of prayer, study and dialogue.

http://www.episcopalian.org/cclec/paper-philturner1.htm (4781 words)



Do We Really Need Bishops?

Yet at the same time, within the Episcopal Church bishops are currently the most visible and pugnacious signs of disunity, and many bishops conceive of their office as a prophetic questioner of the faith and officers of innovation rather than guardians of a faith once received.
We have approved the agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Called to Common Mission, in which the historic episcopate is affirmed as a sign of apostolic continuity and Christian unity.
Several times I have written on the topic of the Episcopate and its role in the Church.

http://www.vitalchurchministries.org/Newsletter/273.aspx (3114 words)



The VOICE - October 1999

While agreeing with "the historic practice whereby the bishop is representative of the wider church," and should "regularly" preside, it concedes that there might be emergency situations in which that would not be possible.
Marty said that he celebrated both moves and said, from a historical viewpoint, it is the first time in U.S. religious history that a church has bridged the gap between churches so diversely governed-congregational, presbyterian, synodical, conferencial and episcopal.
In the most controversial provision, the Lutherans would agree to join Episcopalians in the historic episcopate, a sign of the church's continuity with the apostolic church.

http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/vox21099.html (1086 words)



ELCA ASSEMBLY APPROVES FULL COMMUNION WITH EPISCOPAL CHURCH

In approving the proposal, the ELCA agreed to accept the "historic episcopate," the concept that those who ordain new pastors are from a line of bishops stretching back to the earliest days of the church.
While a number of Lutheran churches around the world have the historic episcopate, it has never been a part of American Lutheran church life, and numerous voting members of the assembly said they did not believe the church needed it.
On their side, the Episcopalians have agreed to suspend a 17th century rule about who can be considered a priest and agreed to accept the ministries of all current ELCA pastors and bishops.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/730071677h/ELCAAPPR.HTM (1288 words)



Crosswalk.com - Churches Celebrate Unity

One difference is the Episcopal belief that bishops are part of an unbroken line of succession from Jesus' apostles, called the "historic episcopate." Anglican churches teach that the historic episcopate is an essential element of the church and insist that pastors can be ordained only by a bishop.
...Members of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are celebrating a unity agreement that took four decades of dialogue to reach.
...Lutheran churches in some parts of the world embrace the historic episcopate, but many do not, allowing pastors to be ordained by other pastors or a bishop.

http://www.crosswalk.com/524236.html (450 words)



Protestantism and the Historic Episcopate

Second, we must insist that "episcopal authority" is not merely a definitional given--not merely an instance of a given bishop providing a list of all his predecessors in office, stretching back to the Apostles themselves in order to demonstrate an unbroken line of irresistible (?) authority.
True ministry can exist in a bad state just as bodily life continues during a disease; the Church and not the ministry is the fundamental thing, and so the ministry is a matter of the well-being (bene esse) of the Church and not of her being as such (esse).
Other patristic utterances, such as from Augustine, can be brought in to demonstrate that one is not to follow even catholic bishops if they are found denying the truth of the catholic faith.

http://www.societaschristiana.com/History/Original/ProtestantismAndEpiscopate.html (5011 words)



Some Comments on the South India Scheme

Others believe that episcopacy is of divine appointment, and that episcopal ordination is an essential guarantee of the sacraments of the Church" (p.
We must note also the danger that the episcopate may be overruled even in matters of Faith and Order by a General Synod of the Church (pp.
But they proceed as follows: "Some regard episcopacy merely as a form of church government which has persisted in the Church through the centuries and may as such be called historic, and which at the present time is expedient for the Church in South India.

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/pc/india/fhood.html (2747 words)



Southwestern Minnesota Synod

When the Episcopal Church is providing a "temporary suspension of their ordinals," that is, the rules or understanding that define what they believe, in CCM they are giving us time to convert to their way of belief.
What Bishop Olson is carefully not addressing is the fact that while CCM seems to say that we don’t hold the historic episcopate as necessary for church unity, the Episcopal Church DOES believe it and acts accordingly.
Ultimately, continued practice and usage over a period of a generation or two, accompanied by the retirement and death of those, like myself, who are a part of the "old way," will create among the people of the church the understanding that it is necessary to unity and the presence of God’s saving action.

http://www.rrcnet.org/~saviors/response.html (2790 words)



Called to Common Mission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conservatives within ELCA argued that requiring historic episcopate would contradict the traditional Lutheran doctrine that the church exists wherever the Word is preached and Sacraments are practiced.
Called to Common Mission is an agreement between The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), establishing full communion between them.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church expressed his disappointment at the Assembly's decision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Called_to_Common_Mission (183 words)



SD Synod ELCA: Synopsis April 2000

The historic episcopate is a manner of conducting ordinations of pastors that is very important to the Episcopal church and has been a part of their heritage and tradition for centuries.
Bishop Andrea asked that synod congregations remember in prayer Alma and the Barya family as well as the Rev. Yema Jonas, the vice president of the church, and the members of the EELC.
The enclosed letter from the ELCA Conference of Bishops, however, does advocate for and support the idea of wiggle room.

http://inst.augie.edu/~sdsynod/Synopsis0004.html (1511 words)



Q&A on Called to Common Mission

Because the Episcopal Church also requires that bishops participate in the historic episcopate, full communion with the ELCA will begin at the same time but will only "be fully realized" (par.
The Episcopal Church has a three-fold understanding of the ministry, including deacons, priests, and bishops.
In the future, at the installation of bishops among the participants will always be at least three bishops who come from churches that share in the historic episcopate, including at least one from The Episcopal Church.

http://www.ltsp.edu/layed/ccm4.htm (887 words)



Greenbelt Interfaith News - November 1997

The historic episcopate is based on the belief that authority in the church is derived from bishops ordained by the physical laying on of hands by other bishops, who can trace their own succession back to Christ's apostles.
The assembly approved the ELCA's moving into a relationship of full communion with three churches of the Reformed tradition, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.
The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meeting in Chicago Oct. 2-7 recommended that the ELCA Church Council invite the Episcopal Church to take part in preparation of a proposal for full communion between the churches.

http://www.greenbelt.com/news/97/11/29.htm (702 words)



EIR

Where there is an historic church in a given place, it is the desire of the Episcopal Church to offer it our support both in prayer and in areas of practical collaboration, and not to compete with it.
And may my new service as co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission be helpful also to the concerns of the Orthodox churches as well as others.
I ask God's blessing and strengthening grace upon the ministry you exercise, both here in the Great Church and as Ecumenical Patriarch, in this world that desperately needs the healing and reconciling power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

http://www.er-d.org/6947_9429_ENG_Print.html (557 words)



EIR

Nothing could be further from the truth, either that I believe this or that the Episcopal Church teaches this.
I therefore demand that its custodians withdraw their public assertions about me and the Episcopal Church on the point in question, and I call on all people of good will to urge them to stop.
Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations of The Episcopal Church, USA (Anglican Communion)

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/6947_559_ENG_Print.html (637 words)



Lutheran, The: Assembies take stand on CCM and same-sex unions

The historic episcopate refers to a succession of bishops as a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian church.
The change also would ensure that anyone whose ordination in the ELCA is irregular due to the absence of a synodical bishop would be fully a pasfor of the church.
The Southeastern Iowa Synod also voted against asking the Churchwide Assembly to make needed constitutional changes to allow congregations, pastors and bishops to freely accept or reject the implementation of the historic episcopate.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3942/is_200007/ai_n8927767 (1025 words)



Canon Veal on Anglican Polity

When a person is elected bishop by a diocese, the diocese must then get the consent of the majority of the Standing Committees of all the dioceses in the American Church and the approval of the majority of the active sitting bishops.
Ignatius of Antioch, bishop, convicted, preached from the ship that was taking him in chains to Rome, wrote many letters….
Bishops, presbyters and lay leaders in council govern the Church.

http://www.nwt.org/anglican_polity.htm (1025 words)



Alternate Episcopal Lines

Three of the most important Scottish Episcopal bishops of the early 18th century +Falconer, +Gadderar, and +Campbell defended the Usages as essential to their faith and understanding of their Eucharistic doctrine which was Trinitarian.
Some Episcopal and Church of England priests looked to the Utrecht Union, Old Catholic and later to the Order of Corporate Reunion to give them Orders which were still considered "valid" by the Bishop of Rome.
The doctrine of the Scottish Episcopal Church was often more Eastern in its outlook than Roman but because their politics most often were Jacobite...

http://www.cinemaparallel.com/nonjuror.epislines.html (1634 words)



LUTHER SEMINARY CONVOCATION: OLD TESTAMENT AND ECUMENICAL THEMES

Episcopalians mark this by means of the "historic episcopate," a succession of bishops as a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian church.
Lutherans and Episcopalians both understand themselves to be in "apostolic succession" in terms of the church, an ongoing faithful proclamation of Christ.
This is a serious respectful conversation that welcomes many points of view." In 1997 the initial attempt to approve full communion was passed by the Episcopal Church and narrowly defeated by the ELCA.

http://www.luthersem.edu/news/1999/convonews.htm (500 words)



Despite Opposition, American Lutherans Reaffirm Ecumenical Agreement - Christianity Today Magazine

Anglican churches traditionally believe that the historic episcopate is an essential element of the church that must be respected in any agreement for union with other churches.
Under the planned agreement with the Episcopalians, the 5.2-million-member ELCA would accept the tradition of the "historic episcopate," the belief that only bishops tracing their succession back to Jesus' apostles can ordain new bishops.
None of these churches follows the tradition of the historic episcopate.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/117/34.0.html (1179 words)



The Apostolic Succession of The Anglican Mission in America

The Episcopal Church can be thought of as a branch of the Anglican Church that operates in America.
I continue to be proud of the Episcopal Church and the Lutheran Church for bridging their differences and coming into full communion.
Every new ELCA bishop would be consecrated with an Episcopal bishop present to join in the laying on of hands.

http://theistic-evolution.com/succession.html (7198 words)



The Case for Charles, by J. Robert Wright

The historic episcopacy is not the Gospel, but it is very closely tied to the witness and proclamation of the Gospel, as the late Archbishop Michael Ramsey was known to say.
Charles could have avoided martyrdom if he had agreed to give up his witness to the catholic faith and order that is an essential ingredient of classical Anglicanism, in particular if he had agreed to settle for a church without bishops.
Never have I felt his prayers and intercessions, his patience and determination, more personally than in the last several years when I have represented the Episcopal Church in our dealings with the Lutherans over the Concordat of Agreement and then the Called to Common Mission.

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/pc/essays/wright/charles.html (1305 words)



Rocky Mtn News, 20 Aug 99 -- Lutherans narrowly approve joining Episcopalians

The Episcopal Church, which OK'd the alliance in 1997, must ratify the Lutheran text next July.
The two churches will be able to interchange clergy, share outreach programs and combine congregations in sparsely churched areas.
Lutherans debated, paused to pray then made history Thursday in Denver when they narrowly voted to join the Episcopal Church in a religious alliance three decades in the making.

http://www.st-francis-lutheran.org/rmn990820.html (875 words)



DNA Page 4 Because Christ Died

This change affects the whole church, all seminaries and congregations; all must participate in the historic episcopate.
ELCA leaders have incorrectly claimed that Apology 14:1 refers to the historic episcopate when it speaks of: "our deep desire to maintain the church polity and various ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy." But the "church polity and ranks" at the time included the papacy!
They say that their view is one of many legitimate views of the Reformation.

http://www.luthercomment.org/DNApage4.htm (600 words)



bargain

ELCA Lutherans may be surprised in a few years to learn that for Episcopalians the historic episcopate includes the threefold Holy Orders of bishop, priest, and deacon.
ELCA leaders have enhanced their bargain with ELCA members by claiming "The Episcopal Church" agrees that CCM has been "correctly interpreted" by the bishops' resolution (The Lutheran 5/99, p.43).
If the bishops' resolution is binding, the Joint Commission cannot be permitted to reintroduce, now or after a few years, what the bishops' have rejected.

http://www.luthercomment.org/bargain.htm (749 words)



ISSUES: Fw: Lutherans and Episcopalians wrestle with full communion

episcopate as a sign but not a guarantee of the church's unity and
--James Solheim is the Episcopal Church's director of news and
Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson said that he was convinced that "God

http://www.cpsa.org.za/chat/chat459.html (744 words)



Greenbelt Interfaith News - September 14, 1997

These are the responses that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gave to five denominations anxiously awaiting the ELCA's views on three ecumenical agreements.
On the same day, the ELCA voted to accept the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, an agreement being considered by the 123 member churches of the Lutheran World Federation.
Much of the debate centered around the Concordat's requirement that the ELCA adopt the three-fold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons.

http://www.greenbelt.com/news/97/09/1403.htm (1190 words)



Anglican Communion News Service - [97.8.5.7]

After days of presentations, open hearings and floor debate, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly vote in Philadelphia on August 18 approved the new relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Christ by over 81 percent.
While the implications of the split decision sank in, the assembly participants sang a listless version of "The Church's One Foundation," some embraced each other in tears of joy or frustration.
Lutherans regard their ordained ministry as a single order which includes both pastors and bishops.

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/acnsarchive/acns1300/acns1320.html (440 words)



Thursday Theology -- Historic Episcopate--Another (once underground) Voice

I am concerned that the legal expansion of this tidy hierarchical system will further a growing institutional oppression of those fragile locales, those horridly ambiguous places of suffering, in which we are called to extend the grace of God to all humankind.
Its title: "The Historic Episcopoate [HE] and Justification by Faith Alone [JBFA]." Should you wish to see it, GO TO the Crossings web page www.crossings.org
So we return again to the question; Does the ordering exercised in the application of HE operate in some effective manner to stay hands of evil; to assure, if not grace, then justice?

http://www.crossings.org/thursday/Thur0422.htm (808 words)



Word Alone

The new ELCA agreement with the Episcopal Church requires that we change our basic beliefs about our relationship with God.
It is not necessary that human traditions or rites and ceremonies instituted by men should be alike everywhere”.
WordAlone advocates reform and renewal of the church, representative governance, theological integrity, and freedom from a mandated historic episcopate.

http://www.mlcsc.org/word_alone.htm (457 words)



11/03/00

episcopate, a symbolic link back to the earliest church.
one of the few Lutheran church bodies in the world where the historic
Buthelezi said that the constitutional provisions for bishops in the

http://members.iglou.com/hawkins/11_03_00.htm (830 words)



Weblog: Lutherans Organize Opposition to Historic Episcopate - Christianity Today Magazine

The controversy, which centers on how bishops are ordained and the beliefs behind the practice, has been a longtime thorn for the union.
More than 1,000 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America met in Mahtomedi, Minnestota, to organize against a requirement of the denomination's alliance with the Episcopal Church of America.
Plus: New House chaplain says 'move on,' Canada's Uniting Church moves against official Lord's Prayer, and sports collides with religion.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/113/22.0.html (756 words)



Lutheran, The: 'Historic episcopate' still divides

Votes at ELCA assemblies held in June reveal that synods generally favor a deepening relationship with the Episcopal Church but continue to face divisions as to the nature of that relationship.
The "Mahtomedi Resolution," an alternative proposal offered by opponents of CCM, calls for a closer relationship with Episcopalians without adoption of the "historic episcopate"-a succession of bishops as a sign of unity back to the earliest days of the Christian church.
South-Central Synod of Wisconsin (152-163; but reaffirmed its commitment to continue to work with Episcopal neighbors in common faith and mission).

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3942/is_199908/ai_n8856032 (1096 words)



SE MN SYNOD: Assembly 2003 - Resolution 2003-01

WHEREAS, Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession, which we accept as "a true witness to the Gospel" according to our Confession of Faith (ELCA Constitution 2.05), states that "...it is enough for the true unity of the church to agree concerning the teaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly direct the Southeastern Minnesota Synod Council to forward this resolution to the Church Council for consideration and possible action.
It is not necessary that human traditions, rites or ceremonies instituted by human beings be alike everywhere"; and

http://www.semnsynod.org/assembly/2003/resolution2003-01.html (199 words)



[No title]

If it is so easy to define who is a Christian and what is a church, why are there so many different Christian churches?¡~}¨HReasons both good and bad: Historical Geographical Theological Practical¡$.I(ó ¨What is ecumenism?
Does CCM state that the ELCA will have bishops-for-life?¡^hØÿØÿ(((((((/(6óó¨0Is the HE a problem?What are its implications?¡ 10¨8Will CCM truly enhance our mission and ecumenical goals?¡69hØÿØÿ,,0,óó¨Make it simple.¡ ¨ÝFor the sake of ecumenism or of Lutheranism, is the issue of the historic episcopate something to celebrate or about which to be concerned?

http://www.crossmarks.com/CCMPresentation.ppt (1186 words)



E Washington Idaho Synod Resolution 3, 2001

WHEREAS, the ELCA Conference of Bishops, in a recent pastoral letter, expressed their “desire that implementation of ‘Called to Common Mission’ enable full participation in the ELCA of all members; be it therefore
WHEREAS, their approval for entrance to seminary, ordination and call to ministry, and/or confirmation vows were not conditioned upon the acceptance of the historic episcopate as defined in the Called to Common Mission document approved by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly; and

http://wordalone.com/2001/ea-wash_idaho3.htm (96 words)



St. Paul Pioneer Press, 5 Aug 00: ELCA researches ordination options

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America this summer entered into an agreement with the Episcopal Church to exchange clergy and welcome members of both churches to the sacrament of Holy Communion.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's church council has asked its legal and constitutional review committee to find a process that would allow bishops to authorize a pastor of the church to preside over the ordination of candidates for ministry.
But the Episcopal Church has stated publicly and formally that every Lutheran pastor's ordination is ``fully authentic.'' Still, the opposition, a group of Lutheran pastors called the Word Alone Network, which is headquartered at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, Minn., believes the ecumenical agreement puts too much emphasis on the authority of bishops.

http://www.st-francis-lutheran.org/spp000805.html (281 words)

Topic: Historic episcopate

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