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'We go back and forth, it's no big deal'
West North, N.S. -- Besides sharing the name of the same saint, the Anglican and Lutheran churches in West Northfield, Nova Scotia, share equal billing on a highway sign that points the way to the two buildings.Side by side the church names are spelled out: St. Andrew's Anglican Church and St. Andrew's Lutheran Church. The panels are similar but distinct in that each bears the crest of its own national church.
The sign has been there for some 30 years. You could call it a sign of the times.
On July 6 in Waterloo, Ont., the Anglican Church of Canada and Canada's largest Lutheran body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, are expected to formally adopt The Waterloo Declaration-Called to Full Communion. It's being hailed as a major breakthrough in the movement toward Christian unity.
Full communion is not a merger or organic union. There is mutual recognition of each other's rites, services, sacraments, and clerical orders, but the two national churches will maintain their own individual identity, structures, and governance.
For many of the folks in the West Northfield area, adoption of full communion will affirm what area Lutherans and Anglicans have been about for decades, long before the two national churches approved the interim sharing of the Eucharist in 1989.
"We go back and forth, it's no big deal," says the Rev. Gloria McClure-Fraser, who serves six area congregations including St. Andrew's (Anglican). "We share a lot of theology which makes things a lot easier."
Ask the Rev. William Gustafason, who serves four congregations including St. Andrew's (Lutheran), about joint worship services, the interchangeability of clergy and the fact that Anglican young people attend Sunday school at his church.
"We've being doing things here for more than 30 years that Full Communion talks about," he'll reply. Somehow it all feels very comfortable and natural.
Yes, it does feel comfortable, Lawrence Bruhm, a lifelong Anglican, agrees. And necessary."We all try to work together, the best we can." says the retired school bus driver and small businessman. "Look at what's happening in Christianity and in religion today. If we don't work together, there won't be a lot going on."
Lifelong Lutheran and small businessman, Bruce Veinotte, suggests that a generation ago people would not have been talking along these lines. But this is a different era.
"People have to realize that if the Christian Church is going to survive, in this area anyway, they are going to have to work together," he says.
"There are going to be diehards that will go to their grave and not change," Mr. Veinotte says. "But in most cases they would get along together. The two churches are about a quarter mile from each other. Look out the door from either one and we could wave to each other if we wanted to. The idea of having two churches in a little community like ours� it's not necessary."
Lutherans and Anglicans share a common heritage. They emerged from the Reformation believing themselves to hold the same faith, to preach the same word, to celebrate the same sacraments, and to exercise the same ministry as the apostles. Yet, historically they have led separate and parallel existences.
Similarities between the two traditions are so striking that the Rev. Jon Fogleman, pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Guelph, Ontario, says Lutherans and Anglicans should have entered into full communion years ago. Mr. Fogleman, the Lutheran representative at the Anglican's Council of General Synod, raised some eyebrows when he compared the difference between Anglicans and Lutherans to the difference between Time and Newsweek. Take the covers off the magazines and you discover the same content. Others suggest it's a little more complex.
But Mr.Fogleman, a passionate supporter of full communion, stands by his analogy. As both magazines report the same news, he says, so Anglicans and Lutherans report the same "good news"-the Gospel.
Full communion, Mr. Fogleman says, is the "discovery of what we have in common rather than the discovery of new ground. The moment we vote for full communion, it's a whole new day for both churches. We will be sailing into uncharted waters which will raise questions about how we do church now."
It's not expected to be all plain sailing. Consider St. Jude Wexford, and the neighbouring Emmanuel Lutheran Church in west Toronto. After an earlier period of close ecumenical interaction, the two parishes now more or less go their own way. Relationships remain cordial, but the financially strapped Lutheran church with a dwindling congregation, is struggling just to survive. As a consequence it's directing its energy into outreach and evangelism.
Nevertheless, Diana Schnitzler quips that she is getting ready for full communion by having a foot in both churches. A cradle Anglican, she is a member of St. Jude, an affiliate member of Christ Lutheran Church in Scarborough, and attends Bible study and Wednesday evening service at Emmanuel Lutheran, located on the ground floor of a Lutheran seniors complex where she has an apartment.
"I'm very comfortable either way," says Ms. Schnitzler who is taking a lay ministry certificate course at Wycliffe College.When she and her husband lived in eastern Ontario they could not find an Anglican church in which they felt comfortable. So they both joined a Lutheran church.
In Port Alberni, B.C., Anglicans and Lutherans appear to have had a head start on full communion. Faced with a dwindling congregation and financial trouble, Christ the King Lutheran was faced with two choices: either close down completely as a congregation or join another church. The congregation opted for joining in shared ministry with St. Alban's Anglican Church with the Anglican priest as their pastor.
The two congregations now worship together, using the facilities and ordained ministry of St. Alban's, but maintain their separate identities. Every third Sunday there's a Lutheran service with full liturgy. The other Sundays there's an Anglican service.
Christ the King Lutheran still exists, though it no longer has a church building of its own, and it maintains its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
"It's all very smooth," says the Rev. Patrick Tomalin, who has been co-pastor at St. Alban's with his wife Dianne since February. "It's so seamless that it's hard to tell who is Lutheran and who is Anglican. And, nobody minds anyway."
What's happening at St. Albany is an example of what can happen if people put their minds to it, says Joe Hill, a chartered accountant and lifelong Anglican. "We welcomed them (the Lutherans) with open arms and it's all been very amicable," he says. "It's taking a little time for us to get used to their hymns. We are creatures of habit in that area. But, we will get on to that just as they will get on to ours."
Vera Seydel, a "Lutheran by birth," says the Lutheran congregation has never looked back since it threw in its lot with the local Anglicans.
"It's just wonderful," she says. "They did welcome us with open arms. We were a little nervous but we work very well together."
Mrs. Seydel will be a Lutheran delegate at Waterloo when the vote on full communion is taken. She will enthusiastically vote "yes."
Full communion, she says, can serve as an example for other Christian denominations especially in small towns such as Port Alberni. "There are more churches here than people," she says. "All sorts of them and they are all struggling."