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The Bishop's Journal
October 1999
CONTINUING
REFORMATION
November 30 of this year I will be having what my daughters would call a 'sleepover', with three good friends, Matthew, Ralph and Anthony. But it won't be the usual 'boy's weekend away'. Instead of fishing and card playing (fine activities in themselves!) the four of us will be gathering in a Southern Ontario retreat centre for prayer and conversation. You see, Matthew, Ralph and Anthony are all fellow bishops: Bishops Anthony Tonnos and Matthew Ustrzycki of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamilton and Bishop Ralph Spence of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara.
We set this date this past June having just shared a wonderfully exciting Day of Renewal with some 200 clergy from our respective church bodies. We agreed that it was important for us as church leaders to meet in a prayerful setting to deepen friendships and to pray as one for a deeper experience of God's gift of unity.
This has been a year wherein our church has taken significant steps in support of the greater unity of God's people. In July of this year the National Convention of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada voted, almost unanimously, to approve the principle of full communion between our church and the Anglican Church of Canada. This action mirrored a similarly decisive action by Anglicans meeting at their General Synod in 1998. It is fully expected that our churches will formally declare themselves to be in full communion with one another in July, 2001 when our respective churches will meet at the same time in Waterloo ON.
In another near unanimous action, delegates enthusiastically invited the Lutheran Church-Canada to join us in a relationship of eucharistic sharing. This invitation was issued with the firm conviction that eucharistic sharing should be seen as a means of effecting unity, rather than as a goal signifying the attainment of unity. We pray that God's blessing would rest on this initiative and hope that it will be favourably received by our Lutheran Church-Canada sisters and brothers.
Then, on October 31 of this year - Reformation Day - representatives of the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation will meet in Augsburg, Germany to formally sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. In this document, Lutherans and Roman Catholics state that "Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work, and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works."
Therein lies the heart of a consensus document that theologians from our respective church bodies have toiled over since 1967. But more significantly, the statement reflects agreement on a theological question that has divided most of the wider Christian community for 457 years!
I am proud to describe myself as being a Lutheran by confession. I am equally proud to say that I am Lutheran, Mennonite, Anglican, Roman Catholic, United, Orthodox and Baptist by nurture. My faith journey has been informed by people and sources from each of these traditions. My guess is, if you think about it, yours has been, too!
This Reformation Day, I would encourage you to consider how you might share a moment of thanksgiving with someone from another faith tradition. Not all of us enjoy the luxury of being able to go away with friends on an overnight retreat. But my guess is that all of us have friends with whom we could share some spiritual conversation over a meal, a walk or a glass of wine. Perhaps you could visit one another's worshipping communities!
What a wonderful way to give thanks for the unifying work of the Holy Spirit that we are witnessing today! What a wonderful way to open ourselves to the even greater unity that same Spirit holds before us! What a wonderful way to contribute to the ongoing reformation of God's church!
The Rev. Michael J. Pryse,
Bishop
