The Nordic Churches and the Ecumenical Movement

A long and heated debate about the Porvoo common statement took place in many congregations, in the media and in meetings around the country. For the first time in Denmark, ecumenical theology and relations with other Christian churches were discussed on a broad scale at the grassroots. Because the debate was so intense, the bishops had to postpone the deadline for responses. Finally, at a meeting on 28-29 August 1995 they decided that from the responses and the discussion a common consensus about the adoption of the Porvoo common statement had not emerged. Thus, it was a No to Porvoo.

At the same time the bishops went on to say that the close relationships between the churches must be strengthened. They also stated that, seen from the Danish side, there are no differences of a church-dividing character between the faith of the Lutheran and Anglican churches. Anglicans are invited to participate in the eucharist in the Danish church and to become members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark if they remain for a longer period in Denmark. Anglican pastors are welcome to serve as pastors in the Danish church without reordination, Anglican bishops are welcome at bishops' consecrations in Denmark. The bishops concluded their statement by stressing two issues: (1) that according to the Lutheran understanding of the ministry the office of bishop is a pastoral ministry which has certain obligations concerning oversight of congregations and pastors; (2) that full equality between male and female pastors is a reality in the Danish Lutheran Church. One could describe the bishops' statement as a Yes to the content of the Porvoo text. But the No to the Porvoo common statement came first, not the other way round.

An analysis of the responses may help to explain the Danish No. Some of those who opposed signing the Porvoo common statement argued that it would make the Anglican understanding of the episcopate in historic apostolic succession the theological and practical norm for understanding the ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark; and that this would introduce two different kinds of ministries (pastors and bishops) into a church which has since the Reformation understood the bishop as a pastor with responsibilities for the enlarged parish (the diocese) without paying any attention to the issue of historic apostolic succession. To sign Porvoo, these opponents maintained, would in effect be to give up our Danish Evangelical-Lutheran identity and to acknowledge that our understanding of the ministry since the Reformation has been wrong.

Paragraph 53, which Gunther Gassmann has described as the most important article in the entire Porvoo common statement, reads:

   The mutual acknowledgment of our churches and ministries is theologically
   prior to the use of the sign of the laying-on of hands in the historic
   succession. Resumption of the use of the   sign does not imply an adverse
   judgment on the ministries of those churches which did not previously make
   use of the sign. It is rather a means of making more visible the unity and
   continuity of the church at all times and in all places.