Presiding Bishop extols ecumenical 'genius' of William Reed Huntington at Episcopal-Lutheran service

"The greatest fruitfulness of Huntington's work has been that push toward unity, based on four relatively simple principles about the scriptures, creeds, sacraments, and ministry -- ministry of a sort that claims bishops as an important connection with the genius of early Christianity," the Presiding Bishop said on April 23. "That formulation about the essential marks of Episcopal and later, Anglican, identity became the bedrock of ecumenical dialogue in something we call the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.  It let the Episcopalians move beyond the cultural and theological differences they had about liturgical style to focus on essentials, and frankly, to get beyond the cultural differences that kept Episcopalians in their own churches and Lutherans in theirs on Sunday mornings for centuries in this country."

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Jefferts Schori presented the annual William Reed Huntington Sermon, named in honor of the Episcopal priest whose life-long work included the historic Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral. Reed, a leader and scholar, served as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Manhattan from1883 to1909. 

The sermon was presented during a worship service at Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City. Bishop Mark S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) presided at the service.

"Huntington's work in the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral really was a piece of genius, born out of the lived experience of division over confession and a narrow understanding of episcopacy," Jefferts Schori said. "His later work in the Episcopal Church had significant effect on liturgical reform, and even though what we got in the 1892 Book of Common Prayer did not go as far as he desired, it did begin to offer a greater flexibility in its use.  He also pushed for the recovery of the ancient order of deaconesses, beginning in 1871, probably after seeing evidence of the sacrificial and transformative ministry of Lutheran deaconesses, who first came to this country in 1849.  What seeds he sowed in all those fields, he never knew, but I think he would celebrate the fruit of his work."
 
Jefferts Schori also spoke about her Holy Week trip to the Holy Land and meeting with the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, director of the International Center of Bethlehem, a Lutheran Center. "I was deeply moved to see again how the fences that tend to keep us in separate pastures here break down in the face of the world's woe."

Among the participants at the April 24 worship service were Bishop Mark Sisk and Vicar Bishop E. Don Taylor of the Episcopal Diocese of New York [www.dioceseny.org]; the Rev. David W. Olson, Interim Bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan Synod; and Lutheran and Episcopal clergy.

The offering from the service was earmarked for Episcopal Relief and Development, Lutheran Disaster Response, and Lutheran World Relief.