PHILADELPHIA, PA -- "Called to Common Mission," a revised proposal for full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church, won a unanimous endorsement today from the faculty of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. The faculty had also supported an earlier proposed Concordat with The Episcopal Church that was narrowly rejected by ELCA delegates meeting at a Philadelphia Churchwide Assembly in 1997.

"Although we had hoped the Concordat would be approved," the faculty statement says, "we appreciated the serious objections to it raised by some of our brothers and sisters in Christ within the ELCA." The faculty members said both conversations arising out of the 1997 vote and a special December 1998 convocation focusing on CCM at the Seminary had paved the way for the latest faculty commentary.

"We continue to endorse the proposal for full communion now contained in 'Called to Common Mission' and urge the ELCA to adopt it at its next Churchwide Assembly," the faculty members said in their statement issued at the conclusion of a faculty meeting.

On the question of ministry and the historic episcopate so often the focus of debate involving Lutheran/Episcopal unity, the faculty statement says that the Lutheran Church has never rejected the "tradition" of a historic episcopate in either its confessional documents or its subsequent ordering of ministries.

"In our view," the statement says, "the reception of the historic episcopate spoken of in the CCM provides The Episcopal Church with a means of recognizing that fact within the ELCA and does not represent a change in the ELCA's understanding of ministry. We hold that the presence of other bishops at episcopal installations can promote collegiality, strengthen the wider church, and express the full communion initiated by this agreement. It does not create, much less maintain, that unity of the faith given by God through Word and Sacrament."

The faculty statement concentrated on several discussion points -- witness to the Gospel, the unity of the church and the matter of full communion between churches.

"We believe that the level of cooperation between our two churches envisioned in CCM will enhance our witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in North America," the statement says on the matter of witness. "Any time two churches, on the basis of a clear confession of their common faith, can come to ecumenical agreement, Christian witness will be strengthened." The statement acknowledges the covenant relationship between the Lutheran Seminary and General Theological Seminary in New York City, the oldest seminary of The Episcopal Church, and contends that CCM "will foster that ongoing relationship….In the diversity that marks the religious culture of our region, we believe that CCM will support the efforts of both churches with the particular challenges of ministry that confront us."

In making its points about unity the statement says, "The Holy Spirit bestows unity upon the church at all times and places through the right preaching of the Word of God and the proper administration of the Sacraments. This unity cannot be broken by diversity of practices within the churches, nor can we enhance this unity through human arrangements. Instead, such unity occurs only by the power of the Holy Spirit working through God's Word and Sacraments." Article seven of the Augsburg Confession describes this God given unity, the statement says.

Full communion, the statement says, is "an expression of unity between two distinct churches, arising out of the real human need to order our churches to serve Christ's mission in this world. Such full communion means recognizing one another as churches within the catholic and apostolic church that hold the essentials of the Christian faith and establishing certain practical means for expressing and strengthening fellowship and our common witness." Article 15 of the Augsburg Confession, building upon the freedom professed in article seven, describes how we may strive for greater unity in this context.

Citing the importance of Lutheran/Episcopal agreement on matters of faith, the faculty statement affirms paragraph five in the CCM. The paragraph says, "…we are accounted righteous and are made righteous before God only by grace through faith because of the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and not on account of our works or merit." Moreover, the faculty statement says, the CCM confesses that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present, distributed and received under the forms of bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. "We trust that this confession will inform the basic instruction of The Episcopal Church as the Augsburg Confession has in the ELCA."

The faculty statement acknowledges how CCM also states that "the church is not the creation of individual believers, but that it is constituted and sustained by the Triune God through God's saving action in Word and Sacraments." This statement, the faculty document says, sets the parameters for all other statements about the church and its ministry contained in the CCM. "Thus," the statement says, whereas ministry of pastoral oversight may witness to and safeguard the unity and apostolicity of the church, it does not establish or guarantee it, because that is precisely what God does through the Word and Sacraments."

LTSP is one of eight seminaries affiliated with the 5.2-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Located in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy section, the Seminary has an enrollment of more than 450 students. It was founded in 1864.