When CORE launches The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) in August 2010, will it require the threefold historic episcopate?[1]
No, but note the chorus that will sing at this launching:[2]
Robert Benne:
“Bishops will need to recover one of their primary duties – guardians of the faith. Bishops and theologians together must articulate, defend, and proclaim the “faith once delivered to the saints” (“Why There Must Be New Beginnings,” #2 at www.lutherancore.org).
“Closely related to these issues, Lutheran CORE’s future ecclesial body must leave behind a flawed polity … that has prevented this aforementioned biblical and theological guidance from being exercised in the ELCA. From the beginning its structure has distanced bishops from that necessary guidance, … has never convened an ongoing council of biblical scholars and theologians to aid the bishops … and allowed a lay-dominated bi-annual assembly to vote on Christian doctrine” (“Why There Must be New Beginnings,” #3 at www.lutherancore.org).
Carl Braaten:
“It hardly seems far-fetched for our Lutheran churches to respond favorably to the ecumenical call to restore the threefold order of ministry, into which persons would be ordained either as deacons, pastors, or bishops, according to the call of the church” (The New Church Debate [1983] 8).
“To sum it up, why do I speak in favor of CCM and the adoption of the historic episcopate? The reason is that I believe that our Lutheran Confessional Writings, taken as a whole, pointing that direction. And I grant that such an interpretation is motivated by a deep desire to recover as many signs of apostolic continuity as possible” (certus sermo, [April 2000] 3).
Paul Hinlicky:
“So why are we editors, past and present, willing to endorse Called to Common Mission? Because the revised Concordat is not contrary to the scriptures, or Creeds, or our Lutheran Confessions.” (Lutheran Forum editorial signed by Ronald Bagnall, Leonard Klein, Paul Hinlicky, and Glenn Stone [Spring 1999] 8).
Robert Jenson:
Ordination is an “efficacious sign,” even a “sacrament,” which imparts an “indelible character” (50). The ordained are integrated into apostolic succession through the laying on of hands. The fullness of ministry is exercised by bishops who stand “in their own sacramentally qualified and significant succession, and [exercise] functions of episcope specific to them” (61). The Episcopal office is an “irreversible development,” and “the divine right of the episcopate cannot be challenged by any principle of the Reformation” (70-71) (Jenson, Unbaptized God, 1992).
Jim Nestingen:
“Nestingen looked like a stereotypical seminary professor….He would be a teaching bishop, he declared, leaving little doubt he thought some of the voting members could use it….He said he would ‘accept succession through hands,’ referring to the Called to Common Mission requirement that Lutheran bishops now enter their office through the Episcopal understanding of apostolic succession” (Forum Letter [October 2001] 3).
Paull Spring:
“Having studied the document Called to Common Mission in depth, we wish to express our affirmation of and enthusiasm for the ecumenical advances to ‘full communion’ with The Episcopal Church USA that this document so carefully proposes. Additionally, we wish to express and record our vigorous support for this proposal (“A Statement on Called to Common Mission, by the Bishops of Region 8, ELCA,” March 4, 1999).
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[1] The NALC will be led by “a bishop” (12), and “leaders of NALC will be conceived of as missionary bishops and missionary pastors” (9). Only the bishop of NALC will install the next bishop-elect. “Pastors will normally be ordained by the bishop,” although exceptions will be allowed if approved by the bishop (12). The bishop will ordain, or make “provision for ordination” (12). “The bishop” in consultation with others “will be responsible for submitting teaching statements and policies on church practice” (12). All rostered clergy are delegates to the annual or biennial convocation (11). (Page numbers correlate to “A Vision and Plan for the North American Lutheran Church,” found at www.lutherancore.org.)
[2]Fellow-travelers who have voiced support for CORE include but are not limited to the following:
Michael Root:
“Why should The Episcopal Church adopt ‘Called to Common Mission’ (CCM)? … Has the earlier agreement been fundamentally changed? No. The agreement at the core of the Concordat remains untouched. On the basis of a shared understanding of the gospel and of the apostolicity of the church, the two churches ‘now make the following commitment to share an Episcopal succession that is both evangelical and historic. They promise to include regularly one or more bishops of the other church to participate in the laying-on-of-hands at the ordinations/installations of their own bishops as a sign, though not a guarantee, of the unity and apostolic continuity of the whole church” (The Living Church, [June 11, 2000] 8).
David Yeago:
“It should be clear from this why evangelical catholics have no difficulty in accepting, and even positively desiring, the historic episcopate….And the historic episcopate is one important way in which the unity of the church has been manifested in most of the church’s past history and much of its present reality…. In this way, evangelical catholics regard the historic episcopate as a gift of God which we would gladly receive from the hands of our brothers and sisters in other communions” (Theological Impasse and Ecclesial Future, Lutheran Forum [Advent 1992] 41).
“The ELCA has made a decision that, if the Episcopalians agree, the historic episcopate will become normative practice in this church” (“Not common ground, but sinking sand: a statement on the Milwaukee proposals,” April 14, 2000).