| 29 |
Anglicans of Britain and Ireland and Lutherans
of the Nordic and Baltic lands have at no time condemned one another
as churches and have never formally separated. But a deeper realization
of communion is certainly desirable, and now seems possible, without
denying that proper and fruitful diversity which has developed, in
course of time, into a distinctive way of confessing and expressing
our faith. Anglicans have tended to stress the importance of liturgy
as expressing the faith of the Church. Lutherans, whilst not denying
this, have tended to lay more emphasis on doctrinal confession. Both,
however, see lex orandi and lex credendi as closely related. The Augsburg
Confession and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were produced
in different circumstances to meet different needs, and they do not
play an identical role in the life of the churches. They contain much
common formulation and bear common witness to the faith of the Church
through the ages. Building on this foundation, modern ecumenical contact
and exchange have substantially helped to clarify certain residual
questions, bringing out with greater precision the degree to which
we retain a common understanding of the nature and purpose of the
Church and a fundamental agreement in faith. We are now called to
a deepening of fellowship, to new steps on the way to visible unity
and a new coherence in our common witness in word and deed to one
Lord, one faith and one baptism. |
| 30 |
To this end, we set out the substantial
agreement in faith that exists between us. Here we draw upon Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry (the Lima text) and the official responses
of our churches to that text. We also draw upon previous attempts
to specify the range and nature of Anglican-Lutheran agreement. These
include the Pullach Report of 1973, the Helsinki Report of 1983, the
Cold Ash Report of 1983, Implications of the Gospel of 1988, The Meissen
Common Statement of 1988 and the Niagara Report of 1988. These texts
all testify to a substantial unity in faith between Anglicans and
Lutherans. We have benefited from the insights from these texts as
a contribution to our agreement in faith. Furthermore, we have made
considerable use of the results of the respective Anglican - Roman
Catholic and Roman Catholic - Lutheran dialogues. |
| 31 |
The agreement in faith reached in the Anglican-Lutheran
texts was affirmed in a resolution of the Lambeth Conference of 1988,
where it is stated that the Conference |
| |
|
`recognises, on the basis of the high degree of consensus reached
in international, regional and national dialogues between Anglicans
and Lutherans and in the light of the communion centred around Word
and Sacrament that has been experienced in each other's traditions,
the presence of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Lutheran Communion
as in our own'. |
| |
There is a parallel affirmation in a resolution
of the Eighth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Curitiba
in February 1990: |
| |
|
`This Assembly resolves that the LWF renew its commitment to
the goal of full communion with the churches of the Anglican Communion,
and that it urge LWF member churches to take appropriate steps towards
its realization... that the LWF note with thanksgiving the steps towards
church fellowship with national/regional Anglican counterparts which
LWF member churches have been able to take already and that it encourage
them to proceed.' |
| 32 |
Here we declare in summary form the principal
beliefs and practices that we have in common: |
| |
a |
We accept the canonical scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments
to be the sufficient, inspired and authoritative record and witness,
prophetic and apostolic, to God's revelation in Jesus Christ. We read
the Scriptures as part of public worship in the language of the people,
believing that in the Scriptures as the Word of God and testifying
to the gospel eternal life is offered to all humanity, and that they
contain everything necessary to salvation. |
| |
b |
We believe that God's will and commandment are essential to Christian
proclamation, faith and life. God's commandment commits us to love
God and our neighbour, and to live and serve to his praise and glory.
At the same time God's commandment reveals our sins and our constant
need for his mercy. |
| |
c |
We believe and proclaim the gospel, that in Jesus Christ God loves
and redeems the world. We `share a common understanding of God's
justifying grace, i.e. that we are accounted righteous and are made
righteous before God only by grace through faith because of the merits
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and not on account of our works
or merits.... Both our traditions affirm that justification leads
and must lead to "good works"; authentic faith issues in
love'. We receive the Holy Spirit who renews our hearts and equips
us for and calls us to good works. As justification and sanctification
are aspects of the same divine act, so also living faith and love
are inseparable in the believer. |
| |
d |
We accept the faith of the Church through the ages set forth in
the Niceno-Constantinopolitan and Apostles' Creeds and confess the
basic trinitarian and Christological dogmas to which these creeds
testify. That is, we believe that Jesus of Nazareth is true God and
true Man, and that God is one God in three persons, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. This faith is explicitly confirmed both in the Thirty-Nine
Articles of Religion, and in the Augsburg Confession. |
| |
e |
We confess and celebrate the apostolic faith in liturgical worship.
We acknowledge in the liturgy both a celebration of salvation through
Christ and a significant factor in forming the consensus fidelium.
We rejoice at the extent of our `common tradition of spirituality,
liturgy and sacramental life' which has given us similar forms
of worship and common texts, hymns, canticles and prayers. We are
influenced by a common liturgical renewal and by the variety of expression
shown in different cultural settings. |
| |
f |
We believe that the Church is constituted and sustained by the Triune
God through God's saving action in word and sacraments. We believe
that the Church is a sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom
of God. But we also recognize that it stands in constant need of reform
and renewal. |
| |
g |
We believe that through baptism with water in the name of the Trinity
God unites the one baptized with the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, initiates into the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church,
and confers the gracious gift of new life in the Spirit. Since we
in our churches practise and value infant baptism we also take seriously
our catechetical task for the nurture of baptized children to mature
commitment to Christ. In all our traditions baptism is followed by
a rite of confirmation. We recognise two practices in our churches,
both of which have precedents in earlier centuries: in Anglican churches,
confirmation administered by the bishop; in the Nordic and Baltic
churches, confirmation usually administered by a local priest. In
all our churches this includes invocation of the Triune God, renewal
of the baptismal profession of faith and a prayer that through the
renewal of the grace of baptism the candidate may be strengthened
now and for ever. |
| |
h |
We believe 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 (Eucharist). In this way we receive the body and blood
of Christ, crucified and risen, and in him the forgiveness of sins
and all other benefits of his passion. The eucharistic memorial is
no mere calling to mind of a past event or of its significance, but
the Church's effectual proclamation of God's mighty acts. Although
we are unable to offer to God a worthy sacrifice, Christ unites us
with himself in his self-offering to the Father, the one, full, perfect
and sufficient sacrifice which he has offered for us all. In the eucharist
God himself acts, giving life to the body of Christ and renewing each
member. Celebrating the eucharist, the church is reconstituted and
nourished, strengthened in faith and hope, in witness and service
in daily life. Here we already have a foretaste of the eternal joy
of God's Kingdom. |
| |
i |
We believe that all members of the church are called to participate
in its apostolic mission. All the baptized are therefore given various
gifts and ministries by the Holy Spirit. They are called to offer
their being as `a living sacrifice' and to intercede for
the Church and the salvation of the world. This is the corporate priesthood
of the whole people of God and the calling to ministry and service
(I Peter 2: 5). |
| |
j |
We believe that within the community of the Church the ordained
ministry exists to serve the ministry of the whole people of God.
We hold the ordained ministry of word and sacrament to be an office
of divine institution and as such a gift of God to his Church. Ordained
ministers are related, as are all Christians, both to the priesthood
of Christ and to the priesthood of the Church. This basic oneness
of the ordained ministry is expressed in the service of word and sacrament.
In the life of the Church, this unity has taken a differentiated form.
The threefold ministry of bishop, priest and deacon became the general
pattern in the Church of the early centuries and is still retained
by many churches, though often in partial form. `The threefold
ministry of bishop, presbyter and deacon may serve today as an expression
of the unity we seek and also as a means for achieving it'. |
| |
k |
We believe that a ministry of pastoral oversight (episcope), exercised
in personal, collegial and communal ways, is necessary as witness
to and safeguard of the unity and apostolicity of the Church. Further,
we retain and employ the episcopal office as a sign of our intention,
under God, to ensure the continuity of the Church in apostolic life
and witness. For these reasons, all our churches have a personally
exercised episcopal office. |
| |
l |
We share a common hope in the final consummation of the Kingdom
of God, and believe that in this eschatological perspective we are
called to work now for the furtherance of justice, to seek peace and
to care for the created world. The obligations of the Kingdom are
to govern our life in the Church and our concern for the world. `The
Christian faith is that God has made peace through Jesus "by
the blood of his cross" (Col. 1: 20), so establishing the one
valid centre for the unity of the whole human family'. |
| 33 |
This summary witnesses to a high degree
of unity in faith and doctrine. Whilst this does not require each
tradition to accept every doctrinal formulation characteristic of
our distinctive traditions, it does require us to face and overcome
the remaining obstacles to still closer communion. |
