The ecumenical proposals before the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America afford Lutherans a rare opportunity for a visible witness to the intended unity of Christianity.
While significant practical cooperation between churches, to be sure, has revealed Christian collegiality to the world, a visible theological and judicatorial agreement that commits churches to full communion has never been possible in all church history until now.

Diligent and responsible theological dialogue for two generations has availed us this unique opportunity for a more visible unity in faith. The faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg is grateful to the dialogue leaders who have brought us to this threshold.

We support, and exhort our constituencies to support, the proposals for full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church, USA, the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ, on the other hand.

We strongly encourage our partners in the ELCA to read and prayerfully discuss the documents that record our journey to this opportunity; specifically, we refer to "Toward Full Communion" and "Condordat of Agreement; A Common Calling", and the latter document's respective "Formula of Agreement". While we cannot here, of course, conduct a full study of them, we would like to highlight those matters which have been of most concern already in the discourse across this church, and suggest why we think we can and should move forward toward full communion.

We recognize that there have been matters of confessional disagreement between our churches in the past. We do not think that they exist in such a way now as to require, on confessional grounds, that the ELCA withhold advancement toward full communion. A disciplined dialogue between Lutherans and Episcopalians, informed by international conversations, has helped us to acknowledge our parallel historical development in polities as strategically useful in and appropriate to our unique ethnic and national contexts.

It is a blessing that the genesis and course of our ecclesial histories were marked by a mutual appreciation and not condemnation. Our jointly shared mission setting invites us now to work more concertedly together. We appreciate the Episcopal Church's sincerity in its agreement that Lutheran ministry has always expressed and been founded by the apostolic truth of the gospel through the Holy Spirit of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

We agree, too, as did Luther and the Lutheran confessional authors, that an episcopacy that serves the gospel is a worthy sign for the well-being and catholicity of the Church. We see no reason for fear that our voluntary adoption of the historic episcopate will either demote previous Lutheran ministry or compromise subsequent ministries, whether ordained or lay, precisely because both our communions are committed above all to the gospel of justification and the freedom it bestows in strategically advancing the gospel's mission to the world. The ready understanding of the meaning of the episcopate in the popular culture, coupled with the visible sign of unity between our communions that this parlays to the world--a visible unity which is, of course, mandated by our Lord Jesus Christ--suggest that our communions can be great gifts to one another and to the church catholic in our mutual recognition and embrace of full communion.

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Lutheran relations with churches of the Reformed tradition of course have a history marked by more tension than above, though we have never suggested that any of us have ever been less than integral partners in the Church catholic. Our relations have been marked by theological differences particularly with respect to the Lord's Supper (and so christology), predestination, and polity. We believe, however, that differing metaphysical languages, which are secondary to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, have prevented us until now from acknowledging basic agreement in the ways we have stated matters. Further, careful study of Calvin and our own Lutheran confessions has led us to recognize that we have more convergence on the understanding of the Lord's Supper than previously believed; heretofore Lutherans have unfortunately held unfair stereotypes of the Reformed position of "real presence."

A similar distinction of metaphysical languages has led to some unease with respect to the theological matter of election. We now believe that both communions have attempted in different ways to uphold the sovereign initiative of God expressed in God's grace, which the more suggest fundamental agreement between us on the doctrine of justification.

With respect to differing polities, Lutheran confessional statements have never required that a church adopt a particular polity so to be church, while our predisposition has been historically to prefer a polity that better symbolizes the catholicity of the faith and interdependence of the churches. We trust that our partners in the Lutheran-Reformed conversations do not intend a polity where ultimate authority housed in a congregation would obviate any sense of catholicity; quite the contrary, the very reasons of our sister denominations in adopting more congregational styles of polity were forged in contexts where the integrity of local Christian witness was under threat of compromise.

Further, we are pleased with the language of "mutual encouragement and admonition" that we will adopt with the "Formula of Agreement". This language underscores the honesty of by which we wish to characterize our full communion, and especially emphasizes how our partnership in koinonia means that we are enjoined to be gifts to one another, rather than be challenges by which we become less than what we are. The Lutheran fear, congruent with having been an immigrant church, that in this agreement we would somehow "give up" something of our distinctive theological identity, therefore, is misplaced. We have, rather, a kairotic opportunity to contribute from our strength and to help the Church catholic to become more what it is meant to be.

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We are cognizant of Lutheran reserve regarding the possible excessive autonomy of congregations, on the one hand, and possible episcopal heteronomy, on the other. Where such excess would appear not to evince the inter-relatedness of the Church catholic, we are called by the language of both the "Condordat of Agreement" and "Formula of Agreement" to ongoing and honest conversation as partner churches to symbolize better our local and catholic unity.

To this end, also, we are mindful of the language of the document "Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry," to which all our communions give high regard; "[I]n so far as a church claims to be a manifestation of the whole Church, it will take care to order its own life in ways which take seriously the interests and concerns of other churches." (BEM, Eucharist, II/D/19). That the ELCA today can enjoy full communion with divergent expressions of ecclesiology indeed shows what the Church catholic can become and, again, what gifts the Lutheran Church in particular can contribute to realize that witness.

Our faculty heartily encourages the members of the ELCA to proceed with faith that the Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies is, with these proposed accords, calling us toward full communion.

We recognize, too, that our encouragement is not of any privileged authority, but only of sisters and brothers engaged in mutual conversation of the faithful. Neither do we wish our statement to be taken on its own, but accompanied by significant study and prayer by all of us.

Finally, we would emphasize that these agreements would be of far less interest were they not to help our communions vigorously advance the mission of the Gospel in our fractious, physically and spiritually starving world. Concertedness of our communions can mean blessing for all nations as well as a keener sign of obedience to our Lord's command both to be one and to go forth to all nations, preaching, teaching, and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May the Lord bless our conversation, thinking, and decision-making in these coming days.