Each of the Episcopal Church’s ecumenical bilateral relationships continued this year with significant adaptations for the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than the usual pattern of in-person meetings with worship, fellowship, and deliberations, each group met virtually to carry out its work.

The Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue Consultation (ARCUSA) continued its work examining reconciliation in theological, ecological, and social aspects, and a subcommittee is preparing a response to the most recent Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission document on ecclesiology. The Episcopal Church-Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met in September to advance its work on deeper ties and shared mission. Two major full communion coordinating committees—the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee and the Moravian-Episcopal Coordinating Committee—met to share best practices in joint ministries and to plan the observance of major milestones in our churches’ full communion relationships: 20 years of common mission with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and ten years for the Moravian Church in the Northern Province and the Southern Province.

In a significant decision, the Episcopal Church-United Methodist Dialogue met in July to discern next steps toward a full communion issuing from conversations beginning in 2002. Their communiqué noted: “In light of […] disruptions of our official decision-making bodies and forced changes to the original timeline, the United Methodist and Episcopal Church members of the dialogue committee agree that it is prudent for our churches not to press forward with action on full communion next year.  Instead, the Committee recommends that both bodies take up the full-communion proposal at their next General Convention/General Conference after 2021.”

Each of the five committees has prepared a Blue Book report for the rescheduled General Convention in Baltimore on July 7-14, 2022.