Anglican and Lutheran leaders meet to compare notes on who is in steeper decline

The leaders of the North American Anglican and Lutheran Churches recently met in Toronto to discuss mission. With each denomination in dramatic decline – the Anglican Church of Canada had a pitiful average Sunday attendance of around 141,000 in 2007 – it only makes sense that they pool their survival strategies, known as “mission” in ecclesiastical parlance, to attempt to eke out an existence at least until the current generation of clergy start collecting their pensions.

This “renewed focus on mission” has created a sense of “renewed energy”, apparently; to paraphrase Dr Johnson, nothing concentrates the mind as effectively as the prospect of one’s imminent demise.

As part of the plan to demonstrate that the denominations are still relevant and to allay the suspicion that the meeting was entirely self-serving, the leaders have promised to issue a joint statement on climate change. Many of us have been waiting agog with anticipation for a joint Anglican-Lutheran statement on climate change: if that doesn’t fill the pews, nothing will.

Fred Hiltz is confident that conflict around same-sex marriage is not as all-consuming as it used to be. This shouldn’t be too surprising since most of those who disagree with the church’s determination to bless same-sex unions have either left, died or are too exhausted to argue any more.

four-wayFrom here:

When the heads of the Anglican and Lutheran Churches in North America met recently in Toronto, a common theme emerged when they shared developments in their respective churches: all felt a sense of “renewed energy” that they attributed to a “renewed focus on mission.”

One of the big things he heard, said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, was that, “We’re in a different place…Notwithstanding the fact that there’s still some tension within our churches around human sexuality, we could all say, ‘we’re in a much less conflicted place.’”

While conflicts around same-sex blessings and same-sex marriages remain, “it’s not all consuming compared to, say, a few years ago,” said Hiltz in an interview.

Hiltz, along with Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Bishop Susan Johnson, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton met in Toronto July 2 and 3. The meeting was the fifth of informal talks colloquially known as the “Four-Way” dialogue.

Fred Hiltz in a Four-Way

With three clerical ladies. I don’t know who in Anglican PR land came up with this pithy epithet but, whoever you are, please stop. You are making my job much harder.

The heads of North American Anglican and Lutheran churches are combining their efforts when issuing things like pastoral letters in cases of continental calamities.

The issuing of natural disaster pastoral letters is of such import that their combining will undoubtedly send transcendent ripples of well-being wafting through the entire eco-system. Future generations will declare that this was moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. Really.

From here:

Hiltz-LadiesThe heads of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have agreed to co-ordinate their responses to “events that transcend” their borders, such as natural disasters.

They could, for instance, issue a joint pastoral letter in response to a natural calamity

[….]

Leaders of the four churches reached this agreement when they met for a day and a half of informal talks last December in Winnipeg. Since 2010, the heads of these four churches have met for informal talks, “becoming colloquially known as the Four-Way“, said Myers.

What do liberal denominations have in common?

They hate being hit where it hurts: in the pocketbook. By toying with heresy, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is on the same Gaderene slide to oblivion as the ACoC and TEC. This doesn’t seem to bother Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, their chap in charge, that much though, as long as people keep giving their money:

“My heart aches when I hear ELCA members express a feeling of abandonment because of the decisions on human sexuality taken by our church-wide Assembly. I am deeply concerned when ELCA members and congregations are being encouraged to signal that disagreement by withholding financial support…”

In the same way, nothing gets Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz salivating quite as profusely  as the prospect of raking in buckets of cash: