Affirmation and Clarification of the Nature of the Ordained Ministry

WHEREAS Lutheran teaching has consistently affirmed the one priesthood of all believers as attested by Scripture in 1 Peter 2:9, 2 Corinthians 3:6, and other passages; following Luther, who wrote: "[T]he ministry of the Word is the highest office in the church...[i]t is unique and belongs to all who are Christians, not only by right but by command. Indeed it is not a priesthood if it is not unique and common to all" (Concerning the Ministry, 1523); and

WHEREAS the proposal to ordain diaconal ministers, brought by the ELCA task force on Ministry, was rejected by the 1993 ELCA Churchwide Assembly; and

WHEREAS the Concordat of Agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church, which proposed that “the threefold ministry of bishops, presbyters, and deacons” be “the future pattern of the one ordained ministry…shared corporately between the two churches” (3), was rejected by the 1997 ELCA Churchwide Assembly; and

WHEREAS the 1999 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA has affirmed within the document Called to Common Mission that “all members of Christ’s church are commissioned for ministry through baptism” (6); and further that “the ordination of deacons, deaconesses, or diaconal ministers by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is not required by this Concordat” (9); and

WHEREAS the Tucson Resolution of the Council of Bishops also affirms the “present understanding of one ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, including both pastors and bishops” (A.1); and

WHEREAS it is the understanding of the Episcopal Church, as attested by resolutions of its General Convention in both 1997 and 2000, that there is a “threefold ministry of Bishops, Presbyters [priests] and Deacons in historic succession”; and further that this threefold ministry “will be the future pattern of the one ordained ministry shared corporately within [the ELCA and the Episcopal Church] in full communion” (2000 Resolution A041); therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Northwestern Washington Synod memorialize the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to recognize the Episcopal Church’s tradition of maintaining a threefold ministry within that church body; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Northwestern Washington Synod memorialize the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to reaffirm the ELCA’s historical commitment to the priesthood of all believers and the single office of ordained ministry; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Northwestern Washington Synod memorialize the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, in the interest of genuine unity, to direct to direct the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA to convey this church's historical commitment to the priesthood of all believers and the single office of ordained ministry to The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church.

For more information, contact Craig Nielsen.