On May 1, four groundbreaking churches celebrated 10 years of full communion in joint celebrations on the U.S.-Canadian border. The four are the Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).<\/p>\n
Two parishes, St. Paul\u2019s Anglican in Fort Erie, Ont., and Holy Trinity Lutheran in Buffalo, N.Y., held simultaneous services at 3 p.m. to honour the call to a common mission first made in the Waterloo Declaration of 2001.<\/p>\n
And the celebrations did not go unnoticed in the international church community. \u201cThe eyes of the world were on this service,\u201d\u009d said the Rev. Donald McCoid, a member of the executive for ELCA ecumenical and inter-religious relations. At the close of ceremonies in Buffalo, he read out congratulatory statements from the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation and the general secretary of the World Council of Churches , who commended the two denominations on their decade of working together in unity and Christian mission. \u201cYears later, your churches have much to celebrate\u201d\u201dshared ministries between Anglican, Episcopal and Lutheran parishes in Canada and the United States,\u201d\u009d wrote the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. Of the courageous decisions that set this cooperation in motion, he said, \u201cThese were truly acts of faith.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n