ELCA Now in Full Communion with the United Methodist Church


Again from the ELCA News Service reporting on today's votes at the Churcwide Assembly:

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) – By a vote of 958-51, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a full communion agreement with the United Methodist Church (UMC). The agreement is the ELCA’s sixth full communion relationship. In 2008 the UMC General Conference adopted the same agreement...Full communion makes possible a variety of joint ministries, sharing of resources and interchangeability of clergy.

This is hardly surprising, given the previous "full communion agreements" with the Reformed, the UCC, and the Episcopalians. But again, it shows their total disregard for the doctrinal heritage of the Lutheran church, especially our teaching regarding the Lord's Supper.

From the archives of the United Methodist Church website the following can be found:

Do United Methodists believe the communion elements actually become the body and blood of Christ?

“No, we believe that the change is spiritual. They signify the body and blood of Christ for us, helping us to be Christ’s body in the world today, redeemed by Christ’s blood. We pray over the bread and cup that they may make us one with Christ, “one with each other, and one in service to all the world.”
This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion, the official statement on communion, says, "The Christian church has struggled through the centuries to understand just how Christ is present in the Eucharist. Arguments and divisions have occurred over the matter. The Wesleyan tradition affirms the reality of Christ’s presence, although it does not claim to be able to explain it fully...
Article VI of The Confession of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church, speaks...of the sacraments: “They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening and confirming our faith in him. . . . Those who rightly, worthily and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until he comes.”
United Methodists, along with other Christian traditions, have tried to provide clear and faithful interpretations of Christ’s presence in the Holy Meal. Our tradition asserts the real, personal, living presence of Jesus Christ. For United Methodists, the Lord’s Supper is anchored in the life of the historical Jesus of Nazareth, but is not primarily a remembrance or memorial. We do not embrace the medieval doctrine of transubstantiation, though we do believe that the elements are essential tangible means through which God works. We understand the divine presence in temporal and relational terms. In the Holy Meal of the church, the past, present, and future of the living Christ come together by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we may receive and embody Jesus Christ as God’s saving gift for the whole world."
This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion Copyright © 2003, 2004 The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, PO Box 340003, Nashville TN 37203-0003 (800-972-0433).

Comments

Dan @ Necessary Roughness said…
It is insane. They're going to have communion with people who disagree with them on what communion is.

The UMC is a bit of a squirrel when it comes to doctrine because of the two documents they subscribe to as a result of the merger between the United Brethren and the Methodist churches. The two documents can conflict somewhat in the matters of communions and baptism. Methodists practiced infant baptism while the Brethren did not.
August 21, 2009 at 5:48:00 AM PDT
Donald V. Engebretson said…
You are very right, Dan. Yet this is completely consistent, in its own insane way, with all the other agreements that came before. They gave up any true confession of the real presence when they married in with the Reformed church. Their confession on paper is nullified by their concessions in practice. Another sad day for Lutheranism....
August 21, 2009 at 10:38:00 AM PDT
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