Full Communion Facts

The Waterloo Declaration-Called to Full Communion specifically involves the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC).

The Anglican Church with national offices in Toronto has about 750,000 members in 1,850 parishes and 30 dioceses across the country. There are about 2,000 active clergy.

The ELCIC, formed by the merger in 1986 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada and the Lutheran Church in America-Canada Section, has about 200,000 baptized members in 642 congregations with about 650 clergy. Its national office is in Winnipeg.

Both churches are members of the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. The ACC is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The ELCIC is a member of the World Lutheran Federation.

Both churches were part of the Church in Western Europe before the 16th century Reformation and have been shaped by that reformation. They emerged from the Reformation believing themselves to hold to the same faith, to preach the same word, to celebrate the same sacraments and to exercise the same ministry as the apostles. Both churches have been established national churches in Europe.

Full communion is not a merger such as the organic union proposed between the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada that was rejected in 1975. Nor is it like the merger that created the ELCIC in 1986. To be in full communion means that churches become inter-dependent while remaining autonomous.

Full communion is described as a relationship between sister churches in the family of God. Although one family, each Church maintains its own individual ministry. There is mutual recognition that both churches hold the essentials of the Christian faith and that both are part of the universal Christian Church.

Full communion implies a community of life, an exchange and a commitment to one another with respect to major decisions on questions of faith, order and morals. It implies, where churches are in the same geographical area, increased opportunity for common worship, study, witness, evangelism, and promotion of justice, peace and love.

A significant factor in the agreement is the acknowledgment and affirmation of each other's ministries. Both churches agree to make the following commitments:

• To welcome persons ordained in either church to the office of bishop, priest/pastor or deacon to serve in that ministry without reordination.
  
  
• To invite one another's bishops to participate in the laying on of hands at the ordination of bishops as a sign of the unity and continuity of the Church and to invite pastors and priests to participate in the laying on of hands at the ordination of pastors and priests in each other's churches.
  
  
• To consult with one another regarding developments in our understanding of the ministry of all the baptized, including the ordained ministry.
  
  
• To encourage regular consultation and collaboration among members of both churches at all levels, to promote the formulation and adoption of agreements for work in mission and ministry, and to facilitate learning and exchange of ideas and information on theological, pastoral and mission matters.
  
  

Among other things, full communion will mean:

• Transferability of members between two churches;
  
  
• Communicant members welcomed at each other's altars;
  
  
• Clergy may officiate in each other's service-an interchangeability of ministers;
  
  
• Strengthening resources for mission and ministry at all levels;
  
  
• Encouraging and enabling consultation and working together on major decisions affecting the church at all levels;
  
  
• Greater opportunities for fellowship with other Christians;
  
  
• Shared ministries of various descriptions.

Neither church sees the full communion agreement as necessarily a step towards union of both churches. Rather it is seen as a step towards union of the Christian Church as a whole.

Full Communion History

Lutherans and Anglicans share a common heritage. Both were shaped by the 16th century Reformation that split the Christian Church. Relations between the two traditions go back to the Reformation's early days, yet, historically, they have lived separate and parallel existences.

Politics, geography and the contentious issue of the role and authority of bishops have all conspired to keep the two traditions at arm's length.

In North America, dialogue between major Lutheran bodies in the United States and the Episcopal Church started in 1969 and culminated in last year's declaration of full communion by the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The Lutheran Church had earlier rejected the proposal.

Prompted by what was going on internationally and in the United States, Canadian Anglicans and Lutherans formed the Canadian Lutheran Anglican Dialogue. (In 1986, the two Lutheran groups merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.)

Topics for discussion included authority in the church, polity, ministry and ordination and the question of what is essential and necessary for the church. It led to approval of interim sharing of the Eucharist in 1989 and adoption of a series of identical recommendations that altered the churches' relations with each other.

Dialogue has also led to the Waterloo Declaration-Called to Full Communion, which will be voted on in Waterloo by delegates attending Anglican and Lutheran conventions. Both conventions are being held at the same time but at different venues.

The office of bishop was, and continues to be, an important item for discussion. Anglicans believe that the office of bishop is essential in the church. Lutherans, while recognizing the importance of the office, have tended to see bishops more as pastors who have been elected for a term for regional or national administrative duties.

The mutual recognition of the ordained ministries was a major focus of an international meeting of Lutherans and Anglicans in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1987. The Niagara Report issued several recommendations on the issue of bishops and said there was an understanding that neither of the churches was asking the other to give up an important part of its heritage, nor was it casting aspersions on the other's history and tradition.

Conversations among Lutherans and the move to adopt the episcopacy in the number of Lutheran churches that had not previously had bishops (at least by that title), has made it more possible for Anglicans to recognize themselves in their Lutheran counterparts. As discussions between the two traditions developed, Anglican leaders agreed to broaden their understanding of apostolic succession to recognize Lutheran bishops.

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