The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (the theologically liberal Lutheran denomination) has arrived at a new accord with the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on church, ministry, and eucharist. Read the document here.
After giving all of the agreements that were found, the document gives the issues of disagreement that remain: the papacy and women’s ordination (which ELCA practices).
That would sound like Missouri Synod Lutherans, who agree that only men may be ordained into the holy ministry, are even closer to Rome than the ELCA, disagreeing only on the authority of the pope!
To be sure, there would be quite a bit of agreement even with the LCMS on church, ministry, and eucharist–though also quite a lot of disagreements that have been papered over. (Find them.)
If the ELCA wants to heal the breach with Rome, I would encourage them now to discuss abortion, gay marriage, and sexual morality. The differences would be much greater, though perhaps in the name of ecumenism the ELCA would change its permissive teachings.
From U.S. Lutherans ratify Catholic interfaith document | America Magazine:
An interfaith statement claiming that Catholics and Lutherans are no longer divided on many key issues related to church, ministry and the Eucharist took another step forward on Aug. 10, when members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (E.L.C.A) voted overwhelmingly to ratify the 120-page document. The vote to ratify “Declaration on the Way” comes just weeks before the Christian denomination begins a year-long commemoration of the 500th anniversary of its church’s founding by Martin Luther in 1517. . . .
The document ratified by the E.L.C.A. Wednesday notes that both Catholics and Lutherans believe that in the Eucharist, Jesus is “present truly, substantially, as a person and he is present in his entirety, as Son of God and a human being.”
The document also notes substantial disagreements remain between the two denominations, notably around the role of the papacy and the ordination of women, which the Catholic Church prohibits.
