The ACNA’s website describes the church body as “the reuniting of orthodox Anglicans who have been squeezed out of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada by successive changes to historic Christian teaching and Anglican practice.”
Representatives of the LCMS to the dialogue are Dr. Matthew Harrison, president of the LCMS; Dr. Albert Collver III, director of Church Relations – assistant to the president; Dr. Joel Lehenbauer, executive director of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR); Dr. Lawrence Rast, CTCR chairman and president at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne; Rev. Larry Vogel, CTCR staff member; and Dr. Frederic Baue, pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, Fairview Heights, Ill. Dr. John Stephenson has represented Lutheran Church—Canada.
Official representatives of the ACNA have included Archbishop Robert Duncan, primate of the ACNA; Bishop Wes Nolden of the Missionary Diocese of the Central States; and Dr. Jonathan Riches, associate professor of liturgics theology and assistant academic dean at Reformed Episcopal Seminary; and Bishop Ray Sutton of the Diocese of Mid-America. They will be joined at this dialogue by Dr. Grant LeMarquand, professor of biblical studies and mission, Trinity School for Ministry, Pittsburgh, Penn.
The first session of the dialogue was held at Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis (November 10-11, 2010), and addressed the theme “The Background and Identity of Our Churches.” The second was on the campus of the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Blue Bell, Penn. (May 12-13, 2011), and considered “Authority in the Church.”Background on the dialogue may be found at the following links:
Recently, the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod offered the following rationale for such dialogues. I hope you find it of value.
I find these LCMS/ACNA talks quite interesting. Conservative Lutherans have histoically avoided such interactions. As best I can tell, the ACNA is a very broad affiliation of different breakaway Anglican groups. For example, some accept womans ordination, others do not.
ReplyDeleteWomans ordination aside, what are the primary differences between these breakaway Anglicans and the LCMS? From the little I've read, these Anglicans have much in common with traditional Lutheranism - much more than the ELCA and other Lutheran groups worldwide.
James