The Porvoo Communion – via Copenhagen and Madrid October 9, 2010

Some 5 years ago we began a process that arrived at a partial resolution this last week. Conscious of the fact that there were member churches in the Lutheran Council of Great Britain who had different relationships with the Church of England, some of us were delegated to begin conversations with the CofE’s Council for Christian Unity (CCU) to try and regularise the situation. The Nordic Churches in the Council (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic) were all covered by the Porvoo agreement, so had a close and friendly relationship with our majority church; the German congregations were part of the Meissen Agreement, and therefore also had opportunities for shared mission and service. But the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, the Estonian congregations, the Latvian congregations, the Danish congregation and the Hungarians (now no longer existing) had no formal agreement or basis for our co-operation with the CofE. So Tom Bruch, Very Rev’d Lagle Heinla (then the Dean of the Estonian Church in England), Rev’d Torbjorn Holt, Rector of the Norwegian Church and I sat down for exhaustive, interesting and lengthy talks with the representatives of CCU. We talked about theology, deciding in the end that there were no church dividing issues between us; we talked about models of joint mission and worship; we talked about structural issues and administrative hurdles; we even dreamed for a while about a ‘Lutheran rose in the Anglican garden’. In the end, we came to the very positive conclusion that the LCiGB should be invited to be an observer in the Porvoo Communion, with a view to an eventual signing of the Declaration and full participation. The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad was also invited to join the Porvoo flock this summer.

So on Saturday morning, 2 October, I headed off for the first leg of a Porvoo journey: firstly to Copenhagen, to witness the signing of the Porvoo agreement by the Danish Church (they had been observers since the Porvoo Declaration was first agreed and signed in 1996). The service marking this historic signing took place in the Lutheran Cathedral in Copenhagen – a beautifully austere, classical building decorated only by a beautiful statue of Christ as an altarpiece, and the 11 apostles +Paul arranged along the sides of the cathedral.

 

The altar in Copenhagen Cathedral

 

People had gathered to celebrate this historic day from all the Porvoo community (except for the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church); communion was celebrated together by the Bishop of Copenhagen, Rt Revd Peter Skov-Jakobsen, and Rt Rev’d Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford and Chair of CCU.

 

Clergy at the altar in the Cathedral

 

The contrast between the elegant, austere plain black of the Danish clergy (with the beautiful ruffs) and the more colourful and elaborate robes, not just of the Anglican participants, but also of several Lutheran bishops, illustrated visually the diversity of spirituality and churchmanship to be found within and between our traditions. The straightforward and reflective service also served as a contrast to the previous evening’s worship at the Anglican church in Copenhagen, St Alban’s – a traditional Evensong, very traditionally Anglican.

 

Inside St Alban's - slightly blurred, I'm afraid

 

The building itself might have been found in any English parish – very unlikely in Denmark.

 

Classical pillars outside the Cathedral in Copenhagen

 

Leaving the cool beauty of the Cathedral behind, we attended a reception at the Bishop’s House just across the road, with a modicum of moving and appropriate speeches, and a chance to talk to some old friends, and develop new networks. For instance, one of the people attending was Archbishop Poder from Estonia, which gave us an opportunity to discuss the relationship between LCiGB and the Estonian congregations in England.

 

Archbishop Andres Poder

 

It was particularly appropriate that 2 people highly influential in building up Porvoo – Dean John Arnold and Colin Menzies – were both able to be there.

One last image from Copenhagen – in a building obviously influenced by Enlightenment thought, the statue of ‘Doubting Thomas’ was depicted as a scientist holding a set square…

After some brief introductory meetings with the Porvoo Contact Group on Sunday evening, we all set off early for Madrid (but I’m assured that this is not normal practice for Porvoo meetings). There we were greeted by beautiful warm sunshine – a real blessing as we head into autumn and dark days. The main bulk of the Porvoo business was conducted at the Cathedral of the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church, a member of the Anglican Communion and of Porvoo.The Bishop of the church, Carlos Lopez Lozana, welcomed us very warmly, and we were able to enjoy marvellous Spanish food between the business sessions.

 

The members of the Porvoo Contact Group in the Cathedral of the Redeemer, Madrid

 

in the front of the picture, from the left, are Rev’d Dr Leslie Nathaniel, Anglican Co-Secretary of Porvoo, Bishop Karl Sigurbjornsson from Iceland,  Bishop Carlos, Bishop Martin Wharton from Newcastle.

The main bulk of the meeting was spent discussing events in each church, planning future consultations (on conflict, marriage, interfaith relations and so on), identifying ways in which Porvoo churches can co-operate and so on. We also had time to get to know the local church situation, and to worship together and with the congregation of the Cathedral. The opening Eucharist service was in a rite specific to the Spanish church – a combination of Book of Common Prayer and the Mozarabic rite. Quite unique.

 

Coming into the Cathedral

 

Archbishop Elmars Rozitis of the Latvian Church Abroad and I were newcomers to this group: and at times the amount of new organisational and relational information was a little dizzying. But we were given a very warm welcome indeed: and the future prospects for co-operation, consultation and mutual sharing seem good indeed.

The official press release of the meeting was this:

Press release from the Porvoo Contact Group

Two new observer churches in the Porvoo Communion

Two new churches now have an observer status in the Porvoo communion. These are the Lutheran Church in Great Britain (LCiGB) and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (LELCA).

The annual Porvoo Contact group meeting took place in Madrid on October 4 – 7. Present as an observer for the first time was the Rt. Revd Jana Jeruma-Grinberga, bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain (LCiGB) who had applied to the Porvoo Contact Group in before its meeting in Sigtuna in March 2010 and been accepted as an observer.

The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (LELCA) had also expressed interest in an observer status.  The Most Revd Elmārs Ernsts Rosītis, archbishop of the LELCA was subsequently invited to be a guest at the meeting in October where the application was discussed by the contact group and accepted.

This brings the number of observer churches in the Porvoo communion to three, the third being the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia.

In accordance with the mandate of the Porvoo Agreement to “share a common life in mission and service”, representatives of the churches in the Porvoo Contact Group shared information on their churches and discussed issues of common concern. These include the topic  of upcoming seminars on Conflict resolution, Marriage, Interfaith issues and migrant churches, to be held in the next two years.

The Porvoo Communion is a communion of churches, mostly in Northern Europe, that have signed a declaration to “share a common life in mission and service”. The churches that signed the agreement are The Evangelical-Lutheran Churches of Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland and the Anglican churches of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. Two churches from Southern Europe also belong to the Porvoo Communion. They are the Lusitanian Church in Portugal and the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad and The Lutheran Church in Great Britain have observer status.

www.porvoochurches.org

And just a few more pictures:

 

Listening to a presentation in the hall of the Cathedral

 

 

Beate Fagerli (Norway, Lutheran Co-Secretary) and Archbishop Elmars

 

 

Elspeth Davey (Scotland) and Rev'd Christopher Meakin (Sweden)

 

 

Rev'd Jan Nilsson from Denmark

 

And after the meeting had finished, there was still just a little time to have a quick look at Madrid – such a glorious city! The Prado Museum was stunning (the Black Goyas quite extraordinary, and not in a good way, the Bosch Garden of Delights, the Goyas and Velasquez and Murillos….) Just walking through the streets was lovely, with much great and eccentric architecture.

One last image: on the final evening, we were invited to a meal with the Bishop and staff of the Cathedral: Sra Lopez had made a real paella valenciana in a traditional pan, needing 2 people to carry eat. By all accounts it was delicious.

Let us hope that God will guide us in these new relationships, and that we will be able to play our full part in this community of Anglican and Lutheran Christians.