There are times when an analogy may help us more fully understand our experience. In that spirit let me muse about the relationship between our two churches on the journey of Full Communion through the analogy of a marriage, fully recognizing there will be limits to that comparison.
Prior to 2001 our churches were in the courtship phase of our relationship tentatively exploring what we might be able to share and learn together. From 1983 a series of steps moved us in 1989 to praying for one another, recognizing each other’s churches and interim eucharistic sharing, and further in 1995 to the invitation into parish joint projects, annual shared eucharists, full recognition of baptism and confirmations in each other’s churches of lay people; and move to recognizing ordained ministers serving either church and moving toward Full Communion.
The courtship was slow and careful, fostered in places where Anglicans and Lutherans are close to one another and at the national level through joint dialogue and leaders meeting.
When the Full Communion agreement was ratified in 2001 it was the culmination of 18 years of courting! The “wedding” was indeed a celebration as evidenced when the primate, Archbishop Michael Peers, and National Bishop Telmor Sartison danced the recession at the end of the eucharist that morning. The marriage had begun.
As a parish priest in those years I was aware of the conversations and heard the news of the new agreement. I was eager to explore possibilities with a neighbouring Lutheran congregation. We already shared in a good and supportive ministerial association in which we occasionally shared services and preaching in each others churches during Lent.
As Christ the King-Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lutheran Church in Thornhill, ON, at that time, invited its pastors from the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, we enjoyed sharing that wider international Lutheran life through them.
This led to the opportunity to share a student intern doing her international experience year of formation. Berit Scheler shared her time between our two congregations and expanded our horizon of what ecumenical Full Communion could mean.
Although our differences sometimes seemed small there was an approach in preaching and a way of expressing the faith through a Lutheran lens that made Anglicans listen afresh. Occasional pulpit sharing and deepening friendships continued.
In the spirit of this friendship and our Full Communion, Pastor Martin Giebel, now serving a joint Anglican-Lutheran congregation in Midland, ON, was a presenter at my ordination as bishop in 2008. These are just a few small signs of our growing communion.
The last 20 years have invited us all into exploring this “marriage.” Local parishes have been encouraged to share ministry together; clergy have been cross-appointed in ministry. Congregations have joined together in exciting shared ministries. Our bishops have met regularly for fellowship and dialogue. Our national leaders have developed close bonds of friendship and support through shared statements and messages of solidarity and understanding.
We have also—like any married couple settling into life together—discovered the surprising moments where our differences clash. Our theological understandings meet local needs differently. Our polities and cultural norms have collided and we occasionally look at each other and wonder whether this was a good idea.
These are the normal challenges of learning to live in communion together with mutual love and respect, seeking the greater good of the gospel we serve while respecting our unique gifts and frailties.
Neither of our communions is perfect. Rather we are called by Christ to live into the prayer shared at the Last Supper—….that they may be one (John 17:21), learning from and with each other as fellow disciples in faith.
In joyful celebration of growth into that unity over the past 20 years and in recognition that the challenges are calling us into even deeper sharing and with thanksgiving for our Full Communion, I pray we continue to affirm the closing words of The Waterloo Declaration of 2001:
“We rejoice in our Declaration as an expression of the visible unity of our churches in the one body of Christ. We are ready to be co-workers with God in whatever tasks of mission serve the gospel. We give glory to God for the gift of unity already ours in Christ, and we pray for the fuller realization of this gift in the entire Church.”
May God who has called us into Full Communion grant us the courage and grace to live more fully into it day by day. Thanks be to God!
-Archbishop Linda Nicholls
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