After four meetings over the past 18 months, the Anglican Church in North America and The Lutheran Church””Missouri Synod (LCMS) rejoice in affirming core teachings of the Christian faith they share. The two church bodies, together with the Lutheran Church””Canada, are jointly releasing a report today summarizing the areas of agreement.
Leaders from the two church bodies began meeting in the fall of 2010 to discuss theological and ecumenical issues for the purpose of increasing the level of mutual understanding and affirmations between them, and identifying potential areas of cooperative work. Because the Anglican Church in North America includes congregations in Canada as well as in the United States, a representative from Lutheran Church””Canada, an LCMS partner church, also participated in the discussions.
This is wonderful news! I hope things continue positively and fruitfully in this direction. Early Anglicanism, both in the time of Thomas Cranmer and during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, had very close relations with the German reformers. Cranmer himself was very much influenced by Luther and drew heavily from the Augsburg Confession. Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, all ordained clergy were required to read Philip Melanchthon’s systematic theology. This might be said to represent a sort of coming full circle and returns to one’s roots, if you will. All in all, I find it very exciting and hopeful, considering that I find the LCMS and the Lutheran Church – Canada to be rather faithful to Luther’s theology. Also, for the LCMS to be meeting with anyone who is not Lutheran really says something! I would love to see these two bodies move closer together in the future.