Lutherans, Methodists make interim pact

Lutherans, Methodists make interim pact

ORLANDO, Fla. — Lutherans and Methodists, comprising the nation’s two largest mainline Protestant churches, will share in the sacrament of Holy Communion under an interim agreement approved Aug. 11 by Lutheran delegates meeting in Orlando, Fla.

The interim agreement approved by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a small but significant step toward unity with the United Methodist Church. The churches have a combined membership of 13 million.

The interim pact was approved by a 94 percent margin by the 1,018 delegates attending the Lutherans’ Churchwide Assembly.

The Lutherans currently have “full communion” agreements with the Episcopal Church, the Moravian Church, the United Church of Christ, the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Methodists share “full communion” with three historically black churches, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Both churches are already members of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. The Lutherans are full members and the Methodists provisional members of a new broad-based ecumenical group, Christian Churches Together in the USA. The two churches have been in dialogue since the 1970s but started talks on Communion in 2001; the interim agreement was proposed earlier this year. The Methodists’ Council of Bishops has already approved the agreement.