The present statement is the outcome of a consultation of Lutheran members

of international ecumenical dialogues involving the LWF.

The consultation took place in Malta 16-21 November 2002.

 ______________________

  The Episcopal Ministry within the Apostolicity of the Church

A Lutheran Statement 2002

I. Introduction

1.      For over 30 years, the Lutheran World Federation has been a partner in international ecumenical dialogues.  In these dialogues we have sought both to witness to the gospel we have heard within our own tradition and to learn from others who have heard that same gospel in different ways and forms.  True dialogue, pursued faithfully, should not leave its participants unchanged.

2.      One subject of the dialogues has been episcopal ministry and the apostolicity of the church.  These dialogues have been conducted on various levels. On this topic, Lutherans have been able to reach increasing agreement with other churches.  Some of these agreements have led to binding forms of communion.[i] This development has importance for the common life of the LWF as a communion of churches.  It calls for ongoing attention to the coherence and accountability of the LWF as an ecumenical partner at the international level.

3.      The present statement summarizes main aspects of the theme of the episcopal ministry within the apostolicity of the church that have been affirmed by Lutherans in these dialogues, as well as in LWF studies.[ii]  It is hoped that these basic perspectives serve as an encouragement to further and necessary reflection on episcopal ministry within the Lutheran communion and in ecumenical relations where the LWF and its member churches are involved.

II. Mission and Apostolicity of the Church

4.      As the church participates in Christ and receives the blessings of his righteousness, it also participates in the mission of Christ, who is sent by the Father in the Holy Spirit.  Christ sends his disciples as he is sent (John 20:21); "So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (II Cor. 5:20).  The church is called to proclaim reconciliation and the healing love of God in a world wounded by persecution, oppression and injustice, making manifest the mystery of God's love, God's presence and God's Kingdom.  The ministry of oversight (episkopé) should be set in the context of this mission of the church as the whole people of God.

5.      The apostles are sent "to make disciples of all nations."  The Risen Christ promises to be with them in this mission "to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20). The mission to which the apostles were called remains the mission of the whole church throughout history. As this mission shapes the church, so the church is rightly called apostolic.

6.      The handing on (traditio) of this mission, in which the Holy Spirit makes Christ present as the Word of God, is the primary meaning of apostolic tradition. Apostolic tradition in the church means continuity in the permanent characteristics of the church of the apostles: witness to the apostolic faith, proclamation of the Gospel and faithful interpretation of the Scriptures, celebration of baptism and the eucharist, the exercise and transmission of ministerial responsibilities, communion in prayer, love, joy and suffering, service to the sick and needy, unity among the local churches and sharing the gifts which the Lord has given to each.  Continuity in this tradition is apostolic succession.

7.      In baptism, every Christian is called and empowered for participation in this mission.  God the Holy Spirit pours out his gifts upon the whole church (Eph. 4: 11-13; I Cor. 12:
4-11), and raises up men and women to contribute to the nurture of the community. Thus the whole church, and every member, participates in the communication of the gospel through word and life and so participates in the apostolic succession of the church.

8.      As God's gift in Christ through the Holy Spirit, apostolicity is a many-faceted reality expressed broadly in the church's teaching, mission and ministry. Apostolic teaching is expressed in the Scriptures and historic ecumenical creeds, in the tradition of liturgical worship, and in more recent texts, such as the Lutheran Confessions.  The Spirit uses a variety of means to call and hold the church in the apostolic tradition that constitutes its identity.

9.      As churches of Jesus Christ, the Lutheran churches claim this apostolic identity.  The Lutheran Reformers saw the apostolic character of the western church's theology and pastoral practice threatened. The Reformation aimed at the renewal of the church catholic in its true continuity with the evangelical mission of the apostles.

10.  The church's succession with the apostles has sometimes been identified with only certain isolated forms of continuity.  "Apostolic succession" was thus sometimes reduced to specific forms of continuity in episcopal ministry.  At the time of the Reformation, different Lutheran churches preserved different aspects of such continuity, but all Lutheran churches understood themselves to have maintained the one apostolic ministry instituted by God.

11.  Recent ecumenical discussions have moved beyond limited views of apostolic succession to a richer and more comprehensive understanding of the apostolic character of the whole church as it continues in the Spirit to pursue the apostolic mission.  This deepened understanding has enriched the theology and practice of various churches and has opened new ecumenical possibilities, as churches are more able to recognize each other's apostolic character.  For this enrichment, Lutherans can only give thanks and seek to be more faithful themselves to the fullness of the apostolic tradition.

III. Ordained Ministry in Service to the Apostolic Mission of the Church

The Apostolicity of the Church and Ordained Ministry

12.  Within the apostolic continuity of the whole church there is a continuity or succession in the ordained ministry.  This succession serves the church’s continuity in its life in Christ and its faithfulness to the gospel transmitted by the apostles.  The ordained ministry, the office of word and sacrament, has a particular responsibility for witnessing to the apostolic tradition and for proclaiming it afresh with authority in every generation.

13.  Through baptism persons are initiated into the priesthood of Christ and thus into the mission of the whole church. All the baptized are called to participate in, and share responsibility for, worship (leitourgia), witness (martyria), and service (diakonia). Baptism itself, however, does not confer office in the church, the ordained ministry. “What is the common property of all, no individual may arrogate to himself, unless he is called.” (Luther’s Works 36, 116; WA 6, 566). Ordained servants of the church carry out a specific task in the service of the mission and ministry of the whole people of God.

14.  The ordained ministry belongs to God’s gifts to the church, essential and necessary for the church to fulfill its mission.  The public ministry of preaching in the church requires an authorized preacher and the administration of the sacraments requires an authorized presider. The special ministry conferred by ordination is constitutive for the church. It is a service necessary in order for the church to be what God calls it to be.  Since this ministry is God’s gift, it is not the personal possession of any individual minister. While a permanent aspect of the church, this ministry must always remain open to new needs and possibilities, taking the shape called for by the missionary requirements of the time.

15.  Ordination confers the mandate and authorization to proclaim the word of God publicly and to administer the holy sacraments.  Some churches, faced with special circumstances, also bless or commission in various ways baptized Christians to carry out specific aspects of the ministerial office.  Service in such a capacity is an expression of the church's ministry.

Ordained Ministry of Women and Men

16.  For centuries Lutheran churches, like other churches, restricted ordination to men.  Today the great majority of Lutherans belong to churches that ordain both women and men.  This practice is an expression of the conviction that the mission of the church requires the gifts of both men and women in the ordained ministry and that limiting the ordained ministry to men obscures the nature of the church as a sign of God’s reconciled Kingdom (Gal. 3:
27-28).

17.  The Lutheran World Federation as a global communion has a commitment pertaining to the ordination of women. The LWF Eighth Assembly stated: “We thank God for the great and enriching gift to the church discovered by many of our member churches in the ordination of women to the pastoral office, and we pray that all members of the LWF, as well as others throughout the ecumenical family, will come to recognize and embrace God’s gift of women in the ordained ministry and in other leadership responsibilities in Christ’s church.”

18.  In many member churches of the LWF today, and in the majority of the larger Lutheran churches, women not only can be ordained as pastors but can also be elected to the ministry of oversight. This is consistent with the Lutheran emphasis on the one office of ministry.

The Ministry of Episkopé

19.  The supra-congregational ministry of oversight must, as it fosters the one mission of the church, also seek to promote unity in faith, hope and love. Although every worshipping congregation gathered around word and sacrament is the church in the full ecclesiological sense, all local congregations are by their very nature indissolubly connected across the boundaries of space and time with the one church, on earth and in heaven.

20.  By being specially charged to care for the communion of all worshipping congregations with the universal church, the episcopal ministry has the specific task of safeguarding the true nature of the una, sancta, catholica et apostolica ecclesia that transcends the boundaries of both space and time. By definition, ordained ministry particularly includes ordered service to the catholicity and unity of the holy and apostolic church.  The right and duty of the ministry of episkopé are implicit in this ministry. The task of supra-congregational oversight therefore is deliberately attached to members of the ordained ministry.  In every case they are pastors with a supra-congregational leadership task, and it needs to be stressed that this task has to be exercised in an ongoing, structured way because every worshipping congregation is essentially linked with the universal church.

21.  The unity of the faithful consists in their participation by faith in the communion of love between the Father and the Son in the unity of the Spirit in the one holy catholic church.  This is the unity to which the apostles bear witness, a gift the faithful are given in Christ and which must therefore be received.  Since the church as the body of Christ cannot be divided, unity with God in Christ in faith, made possible through the means of grace, is the strongest impetus to the search for communion with other Christians.

22.  The communion we seek must include the sharing of the one baptism, the celebrating of the one eucharist and the service of a common ministry (including the exercise of a ministry of oversight, episkopé).  This common participation in one baptism, one eucharist, and one ministry unites ‘all in each place’ within the whole universal church.  In every local celebration of the eucharist the church represents and manifests the communion of the universal church.  Through the visible communion the healing and uniting power of the Triune God is made evident amidst the divisions of humankind.

23.  The ministry of oversight is a ministry of service, both to the church and to the ordered ministry that serves the church.  The diversity of God's gifts requires coordination for the enrichment of the whole church.  The communion of local churches requires oversight for the sake of the faithfulness of the church. Episkopé thus serves the purpose of caring for the life of a whole community. Its faithful exercise in the light of the Gospel is of fundamental importance to its life.  Most Lutheran churches have a regional minister of oversight, most often named "bishop." The bishop shares in the one office of word and sacrament.  Unlike the parish pastor, however, the bishop's ministry is regional and oversees a group of local churches.

24.  The New Testament bears witness to the fact that the church never was without persons holding specific responsibilities and authority, but it reflects a tentative phase when different ecclesial patterns developed, coexisted and interacted.  Titles were not yet clearly defined or commonly accepted, but especially in the Pastoral Letters the "episkopos" figures prominently among those overseeing the household of God. 

25.  In the 2^nd and 3^rd century the congregation, which celebrated the eucharist under the presidency of the bishop, was understood as the local church.  From the beginning of the 4^th century, the bishop came to oversee, not just one eucharistic congregation, but a group of congregations headed by presbyters (although the regions of oversight were often small by modern standards).  The local church came to be identified with the church headed by the bishop and not with the eucharistic congregation.  Insofar as bishops today also often have their own church in which they serve as chief pastor, something of the early tradition remains alive.

26.  The theological understanding and organization of episcopacy have varied greatly in the history of the church. Nevertheless, its exercise by a single bishop, united in collegial communion with other such bishops, came to be the virtually universal form of church leadership. It is still the most widely utilized form of pastoral oversight within the Christian churches.

27.  The Augsburg Confession (AC) assumes the continuation of the office of the bishop in the church. Its assumption is that the true proclamation of the gospel is helped and not hindered by this office.  For historical and not theological reasons, the title "bishop" disappeared from significant parts of Lutheranism.

28.  The ministry of oversight is exercised personally, collegially and communally.  Oversight is never a merely administrative or institutional matter, but is always personal. Those set apart for the ministry of oversight are thus set apart as persons.  As a service within the ministerium ecclesiasticum (AC 5), mandated and exercised at the regional level of the church, it is performed in persona Christi and stands simultaneously within and over against the community in service to continuity in the apostolic faith.

29.  The ministry of bishops is understood to be a distinct form of the one pastoral office, not a separate office. Bishops are themselves pastoral ministers of word and sacrament, representing the ministry of Christ toward the church. It is in this perspective that AC 28 states that “according to the gospel, the power of the keys or the power of bishops is the power of God’s mandate to preach the gospel, to forgive and retain sins, and to administer the sacraments. For Christ sent out the apostles with this command [John 20:21-23]: ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you … Receive the Holy Spirit […].’”

30.  The episcopal ministry, however, carries responsibility for larger geographic areas of the church than individual congregations or parishes. Therefore, the ministerium ecclesiasticum carried out by bishops has certain propria, which are not shared by pastors at the local level. Bishops are called to guide the life of the congregations in the region under their care, especially through visitation, and to support their life together. They are authorized to ordain pastors and to supervise their teaching and practices.  In all of these propria, care for the unity of the church universal, and its apostolic faithfulness, is a responsibility to which bishops are especially committed.

31.  The personal character of the ministry of oversight cannot be separated from its collegial aspect. As a collegium, the ministers of oversight represent and promote the unity and common life of the many local congregations within the church at large. They also represent their churches in the framework of the universal church. The episcopal ministry must also be exercised collegially in cooperation with other ministries of church leadership in the area under the bishop's care.

32.  Lutherans do not use a uniform terminology for the ministry of oversight.  However, in the course of the twentieth century, episcopacy, normally related to some form of synodical structure, has come to be the typical (though not universal) form of Lutheran church leadership. Further, persons who carry out this ministry of oversight should be understood as carrying out the episcopal office. The integrity of their ministry should be respected and it should receive appropriate recognition. Ecumenical and popular understanding would be facilitated if such persons in episcopal ministries were uniformly called ‘bishop’.

Ordained Ministry and Synodical Structures of Church Governance

33.  The ministry of oversight is not only personal and collegial but also communal.  Bishops are called to a special role of oversight in the church, but the wider community also is called to participate in oversight and to judge the way in which episcopal ministry is being carried out. The development of various committees, synods, and institutions, including clergy and laypersons, which share tasks of oversight with the bishop, is consistent with Lutheran understandings of the church.  The role of the episcopal ministry in the church is not, in the Lutheran understanding, equivalent to church governance exercised exclusively by bishops. In the vast majority of Lutheran churches, church governance is carried out through synodical structures, which include the participation of both lay and ordained persons, and in which the episcopal ministry has a clearly defined role.

34.  In the church there is no absolute distinction between the directed and the directing, between the teaching and the taught, between those who decide and those who are the objects of decision. All stand under Scripture; all are anointed by the Spirit; all are fallible sinners.  Mutual accountability binds together episcopal and other ministries with all baptized believers. It is through the communio of charisms, the total interplay of ministries within which episcopal ministry plays a leading role, that the church trusts that it will be led into the truth.

35.  According to Lutheran understanding, the church exercises responsibility for its doctrine in a positive way by teaching according to the Scriptures and by watching over the purity of the proclamation of the gospel. The teaching ministry is exercised in a broad ecclesial process aiming at consensus, involving persons and church bodies with various responsibilities. It is the responsibility of bishops to judge doctrine and to reject teaching that is contradictory to the gospel. It is the responsibility of theological teachers in the church and pastors in the parishes also to test their teaching to ensure its accord with the gospel. It is the responsibility of persons in parish councils or in church synods to ensure that also decisions taken with regard to the institutional and practical life of the church are in good keeping with the message of the gospel and witnesses to it.

IV. Episcopal Ministry and the Unity of the Church

Apostolicity and unity

36.  Apostolicity and unity are inseparable aspects of the church. The church is confessed as una, sancta, catholica et apostolica. Hence, all that is said above about the apostolicity of the church also motivates concern for its unity.

37.  Concern for the unity of the church belongs to the very nature of the episcopal office. The church is one in the common procla­mation of the gospel and celebration of the sacraments (CA 7). Since episcopal oversight is concerned above all with the evangelical character of the total ministry carried out within its region, it is concerned with what makes the church one. Most Lutheran churches thus rightly see the bishop as having particular ecumenical responsibilities. Bishops should be ministers of reconciliation both within and beyond their own churches.

38.  The relation between the ministry of the bishop and the unity of the church makes it theologically and symbolically appropriate that those who carry out episcopal oversight preside at ordinations of those who will exercise the office of ministry. Ordination is into the ministry of the one church, not simply into the ministry of one denomination or national church or of one diocese or synod. The presiding minister at an ordination, acting on behalf of the whole people of God, is thus rightly the person who instrumentally and symbolically is concerned with the unity of the one church's ministry. In addition, the role of the bishop in ordination both realizes and symbolizes the ongoing relation between bishop and the clergy of a region.

39.  Episcopal consecration (or installation) in the Lutheran tradition regularly includes the participation of one or more bishops of other churches in the laying on of hands as a sign of the unity and apostolic continuity of the whole church. With the laying on of hands by other bishops, such consecrations (installations) involve prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit. By such a liturgical statement Lutheran churches recognize that the bishop’s service in this place is connected spiritually, in collegiality and consultation, with the universal church.

Episcopal Ministry, Succession, and the Identity of the Church

40.  The continuity of the episcopal ministry in the apostolic mission is important for the church.  This continuity in apostolic mission is the primary content of what is named “episcopal succession.”  This succession is realized in the handing on of the faithful oversight of the apostolic mission.  It is manifested or symbolized in a variety of ways, including lists of bishops who have succeeded one another in a particular place and the succession of consecrations by which each bishop is integrated into a network of shared apostolic ministry reaching across time.  These are signs of continuity in apostolic mission, bearing witness to the church’s trust that God will maintain the church in faithfulness.  The laying on of hands is a prayer for the exercise of the office conferred, and the church is confident that God has answered that prayer continuously over the centuries and will continue to do so.

41.  The continuity of the episcopal ministry is to be understood within, and in the service of, the continuity of the apostolic life and mission of the whole church. Continuity in episcopal ministry is misunderstood when it is taken as a guarantee of a church’s faithfulness to its apostolic mission, or as a guarantee of the personal faithfulness of a particular bishop. However, the sign remains a permanent challenge to fidelity and to unity, a summons to witness to, and a commission to realize more fully, the permanent characteristics of the church of the apostles.  The ultimate ground for the apostolic continuity and fidelity of the church is the promise of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in the whole church.

42.  An important element in discussions about episcopacy is the relation between episcopal structures and succession on the one hand and the identity of the church on the other. Lutherans have insisted that the identity of the church is constituted by word and sacraments and the divinely instituted ministry, which serve these. An episcopal ministry of oversight in a succession of consecrations cannot be considered essential to the church’s identity in the same sense, nor as essential to the identity of the office of ministry. No particular structure of church leadership is an infallible sign of the Spirit’s guidance.

43.  The unity and continuity of the church in the one apostolic gospel are gifts God has promised and given to the church. The Spirit works through many means to preserve the church in the gospel: the Scriptures, the sacraments, the classical creeds and confessions, the witness to the truth by the saints and prophets of past and present. A Lutheran concern with the nature of episcopal ministry is first and foremost an interest in its capacity to serve unity and continuity in the mission of the gospel.

V. Conclusion

44.  The Reformation was fundamentally concerned with the apostolicity of the church in faithfulness to the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, upheld by the proclamation of the Word and by the holy sacraments and received in faith. In relation to the episcopal ministry, the churches of the Lutheran communion around the world are maintaining and developing forms and practices to serve the divine mission of the church. In this statement, we have stated some convictions that we hold in common. As in all matters, our final trust is not, however, in the strength of our convictions, the clarity of our analysis, or the wisdom of our advice, but in the Lord whom all ministry is called to serve, Jesus Christ, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is worthy of eternal praise.

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“The Episcopal Ministry within the Apostolicity of the Church”

A Lutheran Response 2003

 1.      Introduction

1.1.   Last fall a consultation of international participants in Lutheran ecumenical dialogs sponsored by the Lutheran World Federation issued a Statement entitled “The Episcopal Ministry within the Apostolicity of the Church,” calling on the various Lutheran member churches to discuss its Statement. Its Statement is offered both as a summary of the Lutheran position formulated in the various Lutheran ecumenical dialogs of the past decades and—by implication—as faithful to the scriptural witness and the Lutheran Confessions. We appreciate the work done by its consultation because the question of how the church orders itself is important. In line with a call by the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA to engage in conversation about this Statement, we offer the following “Lutheran Response” to our sisters and brothers in the ELCA and other member churches of the Lutheran World Federation for prayerful consideration. Our response is based on our understanding of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.

1.2.   The ecumenical dialogs of our time have been an important development in the post-reformation history of the Christian church. They have helped remove misunderstandings, often affirmed a common witness, and aided Christian communions in attaining a better understanding of one another. Lutheran churches have been important participants in these dialogs. Because Lutheran churches are confessional, however, they must remain committed to the way the Lutheran Confessions reflect the Scriptural witness—unless they are shown to be improper reflections of the Scriptural witness to the Word of God.  Because, and insofar as, they are based on Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions define both the possibilities and limits of the Lutheran participation in the ecumenical dialogs. Only on that basis can Lutheran churches affirm or reject the various affirmations of the Statement on “The Episcopal Ministry within the Apostolicity of the Church.”

1.3.    Sadly, we must observe that, while the Statement covers a great deal of ground dealing with issues of apostolicity and unity, overall it conveys a lack of theological and confessional clarity. What is particularly disappointing in a document that calls itself a “Lutheran Statement” is the constant reference to various ecumenical documents as if those hold official standing in Lutheran churches; in actual fact several have not been received by Lutheran churches. Thus, what many perceive as the disturbing habit of the ecumenical movement is repeated by the consultation’s quoting its own documents to substantiate its own position instead of relying on the confessional standards of the Lutheran churches. At the same time, the Statement does not take into consideration the experiences and central insights of the Reformation regarding episcopacy.

1.4.   For example, in speaking of the reality and depth of sin, the Statement is noticeably devoid of Scriptural and Lutheran insights. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the justification of the ungodly through faith alone has no significant role in the Statement. Consequently, the understanding of the church as the communion of justified believers has no significant role either. Instead the Statement relies heavily upon unclear or dubious ontological concepts such as how the church “participates in Christ,” (Par. 4), how the larger community “participates” in the “personal and collegial” oversight of the bishop (Par. 33), the characterization of “universal church,” and the unique “instrumental” responsibility of the bishops to “realize” or “manifest” succession (Par. 40).  Overall, a theological pattern emerges in the Statement whereby structures of church order assume the place that belongs solely to the proclaimed word of God in preaching and sacraments.

 2.      The true apostolicity and unity of the church

2.1.   According to the Lutheran Confessions, the church is the communion of believers, created and upheld by God through the gospel in the two forms of preaching and sacraments.  This is the clear teaching of the Lutheran confessions from the Schwabach Articles (art. XII), to the Augsburg Confession to the Formula of Concord, “For wherever the gospel is preached and the sacrament rightly used, there is the holy, Christian church and it is not bound with laws and external pomp to a place or a time, or person or rite.” Accordingly, our own Admonition sought to be faithful to this tradition by confessing: “The church of Christ is the communion of saints, that is, the communion of believers, the communion of those who are justified sinners.  This means that the church comes into being in the same way and at the same time with faith and justification: through the Holy Spirit by the proclamation of the gospel and the distribution of the sacraments.”[1]

2.2.   This same gospel that creates the church also makes it one and apostolic: “These two forms of the gospel [word and sacrament], and only these, are the means through which the church is created and sustained; they and only they make the church apostolic; they and only they make the church catholic; they and only they make the church holy; they and only they make the church one.  By them, and only by them, the church, its apostolicity, its catholicity, its holiness, and its unity is unequivocally made manifest.”[2]

2.3.   Therefore for the true unity of the church what is necessary and enough is the agreement in the true preaching and the right administration of the sacraments.  (Augsburg Confession 7).

 3.      Ministry and Episcopacy

3.1.   This central insight of the Lutheran tradition, as expressed in the Augsburg Confession, does not deny the importance of ministry and episcopacy. These, however, are seen as subservient to the gospel which makes the church one and apostolic. They are not in themselves what makes the church one and apostolic. The Statement is at odds with the Lutheran confession of the uniqueness of word and sacrament for the being, apostolicity and oneness of the church. It places word and sacraments on a par with other factors like these: “creeds and confessions, the witness to the truth by the saints and prophets of past and present” (Par. 43); “historic ecumenical creeds, …the tradition of liturgical worship, and …more recent texts such as the Lutheran Confessions” (Par. 8); “communion in prayer, love, joy and suffering, service to the sick and needy, unity among the local churches, and sharing the gifts which the Lord has given to each” (Par. 6). Needless to say, all of these are important aspects of the lived faith of the Christian community. None, however, can be on par with Word and Sacrament.

3.2.   Moreover, the Statement introduces inaccurate notions of “apostolic mission” and “apostolic tradition.” When aligned with the teaching of the Reformation, these terms can only refer to the gospel of Jesus Christ itself. Consequently, the Statement does not understand the church as the creature of the word.

3.3.    According to the Lutheran Confessions, episcopacy is an appropriate structure or ordering of the church above the level of the congregation. In this capacity it can be a useful tool for assisting the church to remain faithful to the true proclamation and right administration of the sacraments. It was, however, the fundamental experience of the Reformation that bishops themselves were the main obstacles to the apostolic witness and therefore to the church’s apostolicity and true unity. In fact, the history of the church evinces numerous instances where bishops showed themselves unfaithful to the apostolic witness. This was particularly the case in the early centuries of Christianity, where bishops frequently were the foremost advocates of heresy. It is surely a romanticized view of the history of the church from apostolic days to the present not to identify how much bishops, along with clergy and laity, were prone to personal shortcomings and theological error, a reality early acknowledged by none other than St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. This historical reality reveals not only the deep condition of sin but also the insight of the reformers that it is God himself who, through word and sacraments, keeps the true unity, continuity, and apostolicity of the church even against human failure. To be faithful to this truth, the reformers supported the installation of new bishops without episcopal succession, the abolition of the episcopacy in the traditional form altogether, or the establishment of new structures of oversight. Thus it was the very break with continuity (conceived as personal, organizational succession) that enabled the reformers to recover the true apostolic continuity because it enabled them to recover the gospel as the only guarantee of the church’s apostolicity.

3.4.    Throughout, the Statement contradicts these insights by unqualifiedly viewing the episcopacy as beneficial and even necessary for the church. Although the document includes the statement “continuity in episcopal ministry is misunderstood when it is taken as a guarantee of a church’s faithfulness to its apostolic mission” (Par. 41), this sentence makes no impact on the overall intention of the Statement. The Statement characterizes episcopacy and its relation to the church in such a way that apostolicity and unity depend upon the church’s having the episcopal office. Although the Statement admits that “an episcopal ministry of oversight…cannot be considered essential to the church’s identity in the same sense…nor as essential to the office of ministry,” it effectively describes the relationship of ministry and episcopacy so that there can, as a matter of fact, be no ministry without episcopacy, given the Statement’s understanding of oversight. This conclusion is inevitable even though the Statement refuses to clarify in what sense ministry is “essential to the church’s identity” (Par. 42), or how it is “constitutive for the church” (Par. 14).

3.5.   According to the Lutheran Confessions, the ordinations of pastors and installations of bishops are done by other holders of the ministerial office—be they bishops or pastors (Apology 14 and The Treatise, 65). That, indeed, has been the practice in the Lutheran tradition since the sixteenth century. There are good reasons in many cases that bishops ordain, and there are good reasons in other cases that pastors ordain. The Statement makes ordination by bishops an inescapable theological conclusion--a biblical and confessional mandate, which for the Lutheran Confessions it is not at all. It does this by personifying the bishop as the representative of unity in such a way as to obscure the gospel as the source and foundation for true unity of the church.

3.6.    This latter is particularly obvious in the way the Statement speaks of installation of bishops through the laying on of hands, purposely called “consecration.” The Statement assumes that such installations use a liturgical action that encompasses both the act of laying on of hands and an act of prayer for the Holy Spirit. It joins these two acts by saying initially that they are somehow “involved” with each other (Par. 39), and then finally identifies them straight out, “the laying on of hands is a prayer,” (Par. 40), implying thereby the fulfillment of the prayer by this liturgical act of the laying on of hands.  Consequently, the Statement assumes that a discrete charisma is imparted to future bishops through the episcopal laying on of hands, which is contrary to the Lutheran Confessions. Thus it is difficult to escape the conclusion that, according to the Statement, the importance for the church of the continuity of the episcopal ministry (Par. 40) is one of necessity.  Episcopal succession as a “sign of continuity” (Par. 40) seems to become an effective sign. The insight that the non-use of certain forms of continuity might be as important a sign for the apostolic truthfulness of the church and as important a “challenge,” “summons” and “commission” to help the church to realize more fully the characteristic of the church (Par. 41) is lost.

 4.       Conclusion 

Within the context of useful reflection, which all readers will appreciate, the Statement nonetheless falls woefully short of proclaiming the basic Christian insight of the authentic Lutheran confession. It is the specific charisma and responsibility of the Lutheran church unceasingly to confess the sole sovereignty of Jesus Christ over and in the church (“Christ alone”). This is reflected in the time-honored Lutheran watchwords: “Grace alone, word alone, faith alone.” We offer this critique of the Statement not without pain but feel compelled to do so because of our conviction that the true proclamation of the Word and right administration of the sacraments is inextricably related to the proper understanding of episkope. Much is at stake. It is our hope and prayer that any further consideration of the Statement will make these Lutheran insights central and determinative concerning the doctrine and practice of episcopacy.

 Prepared by the Theological Advisory Board of the WordAlone Network

 [Updated August 6, 2003.]