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The Nordic Churches and the Ecumenical Movement

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 2000 by Peter Lodberg

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The serious implications of this welfare theology for the ecumenical involvement of the Lutheran church of Denmark over the past thirty years can be illustrated by the fact that it was the only Nordic Lutheran church which refused to sign either the Porvoo common statement or the joint declaration on justification by the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church. The responses from Danish local congregations to the Porvoo common statement show what is at stake in the Lutheran Church of Denmark when it comes to making binding decisions on theological matters in a Nordic ecumenical context.

The Danish No to Porvoo

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The Porvoo common statement is an ecumenical text that was agreed on unanimously by representatives from the Anglican churches in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and from Lutheran churches in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, on 13 October 1992 at Jairvenpaa. (Its name comes from the Finnish city in whose cathedral they had celebrated the eucharist together on the previous Sunday.)

Part of the Porvoo common statement is a joint declaration, which sums up the theological context of the discussion and offers perspectives for further work. It includes a recommendation that the 12 churches jointly make six acknowledgments and ten commitments. The acknowledgments are:

* we acknowledge one another's churches as churches belonging to the one holy, catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ and truly participating in the apostolic mission of the whole people of God;

* we acknowledge that in all our churches the word of God is authentically preached, and the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist are duly administered;

* we acknowledge that all our churches share in the common confession of the apostolic faith;

* we acknowledge that one another's ordained ministries are given by God as instruments of his grace and as possessing not only the inward call of the Spirit, but also Christ's commission through his body, the church;

* we acknowledge that personal, collegial and communal oversight (episcope) is embodied and exercised in all our churches in a variety of forms, in continuity of apostolic life, mission and ministry;

* we acknowledge that the episcopal office is valued and maintained in all our churches as a visible sign expressing and serving the church's unity and continuity in apostolic life, mission and ministry.

The commitments are:

* to share a common life in mission and service, to pray for and with one another, and to share resources;

* to welcome one another's members to receive sacramental and other pastoral ministrations;

* to regard baptized members of all our churches as members of our own;

* to welcome diaspora congregations into the life of the indigenous churches, to their mutual enrichment;

* to welcome persons episcopally ordained in any of our churches to the office of bishop, priest or deacon to serve, by invitation and in accordance with any regulations which may from time to time be in force, in that ministry in the receiving church without reordination;

The Nordic Churches and the Ecumenical Movement

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 2000 by Peter Lodberg

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