Following is the full text of the covenant agreement launched November 21, 1993 by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and the Southern California West Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The covenant was signed by, respectively, the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, Cardinal Roger Mahony, and Bishop J. Robert Anderson.
A COVENANT AMONG The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – Southern California West Synod, and The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
We are called to be “one body and one Spirit,” as there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” (Eph. 4:4-6). This unity, willed by God, desired by Jesus Christ and prompted by the Holy Spirit, leads us to affirm our common faith and common baptism as professed in the Apostles’ Creed.
Through our rebirth by water and the Spirit into the new life in Christ, and our prayerful acceptance of this Creed, we acknowledge that:
A. Jesus’ prayer that we all may be one is a mandate to all Christians to work towards full unity of His Church.
B. The gifts given by God to each of our traditions can be shared for the enrichment of the whole Church.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we pledge:
- To pray for each other daily, and to encourage our people to do the same for their local clergy of our three denominations.
- To ask our local congregations to include in their liturgical petitions prayers for each other’s needs.
- To share resources of spirituality of our three traditions, especially in the context of prayer, reflections, and times of retreat.
- To offer and share our facilities and physical resources on the parish and diocesan level.
- To promote, where possible, appropriate common educational opportunities and programs for the clergy and the laity.
- To work together in our common mission, in areas of evangelization and social justice as essential to Gospel witness.
- To further the purpose of this covenant by encouraging the establishment of similar covenants on the local level.
- To ask our people to join together in prayer on specially occasions.
- To continue active study of those documents produced through our respective ecumenical commissions on national and international levels.
- To promote the joint work of our ecumenical leadership, to review the goals and achievements of this covenant each year, and encourage new avenues of cooperation and continued growth for unity.
- To renew this pledge each year publicly as a sign of our continued commitment to unity, and encourage recognition of the covenant renewal at the local level.
Digitized in 2019 by Richard Mammana for the Episcopal Church Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations.