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Apostolic Succession in the Porvoo Common Statement Unity Through a Deeper Sense of Apostolicity

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Apostolic Succession in the Porvoo Common Statement Unity Through a Deeper Sense of Apostolicity Apostolic Succession in the Porvoo Common Statement Unity through a deeper sense of apostolicity Erik Eckerdal Uppsala University Thesis 2017-08-01 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Ihre-salen, Engelska parken, Uppsala, Friday, 22 September 2017 at 10:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Faculty of Theology). The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Susan K Wood (Marquette University). Abstract Eckerdal, E. 2017. Apostolic Succession in the Porvoo Common Statement. Unity through a deeper sense of apostolicity. 512 pp. Uppsala: Department of Theology, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2829-6. A number of ecumenical dialogues have identified apostolic succession as one of the most crucial issues on which the churches need to find a joint understanding in order to achieve the unity of the Church. When the Porvoo Common Statement (PCS) was published in 1993, it was regarded by some as an ecumenical breakthrough, because it claimed to have established visible and corporate unity between the Lutheran and Anglican churches of the Nordic-Baltic-British-Irish region through a joint understanding of ecclesiology and apostolic succession. The consensus has been achieved, according to the PCS, through a ‘deeper understanding’ that embraces the churches’ earlier diverse interpretations. In the international debate about the PCS, the claim of a ‘deeper understanding’ as a solution to earlier contradictory interpretations has been both praised and criticised, and has been seen as both possible and impossible. This thesis investigates how and why the PCS has been interpreted differently in various contexts, and discerns the arguments used for or against the ecclesiology presented in the PCS. Those arguments are then analysed historically and theologically in order to develop further the comprehension of the ‘deeper understanding’ presented in the PCS and, if possible, to develop the ecclesiology and the notion of apostolic succession described in the PCS. Finally, this study investigates how the PCS has been implemented in the churches that have signed the Porvoo Declaration and in the Porvoo Communion as a whole. Keywords: Apostolicity, apostolic succession, episcopal succession, episcopate, Porvoo Common Statement, episcopacy, ecclesiology, ecumenism, substantive apostolicity, successio, traditio, communio, koinonia, ecumenical method Erik Eckerdal, Church and Mission studies, Ecclesiology, Box 511, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden. © Erik Eckerdal 2017 ISBN 978-91-506-2829-6 (PDF) urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-327198 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-327198) We believe the successors of the apostles only in so far as they tell us those things which the apostles and prophets have left in their writings. Thomas Aquinas (De veritate, q. 14 a. 10 ad 11) When Christ sent his apostles, in whose place there are now bishops and priests, he said: ‘Go and preach the Gospel for all nations’. … Now bishops and priests have entered their office to preach the word and will of God in the same mission. Olaus Petri (Een christeligheh formaning til clerkerijt, p355) Contents Foreword ..................................................................................................... xiii Part I: Introduction and Background of the Porvoo Common Statement ..... 15 1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 17 1.1. Purpose and working questions ......................................................... 23 1.2. Clarifications and limitations ............................................................ 23 1.3. Material, and previous research ......................................................... 29 1.4. Considerations related to the material ............................................... 31 1.5. Order of investigation ........................................................................ 31 1.6. Methodological and theoretical considerations ................................. 32 2. The Porvoo Common Statement and its background ................................ 34 2.1. Ecumenical method ........................................................................... 34 2.2. The history of Anglo-Nordic-Baltic relations ................................... 37 2.2.1. Early Anglo-Nordic-Baltic relations .......................................... 39 2.2.2. Modern Anglo-Nordic relations................................................. 41 2.3. The ecumenical background to the PCS ............................................ 46 2.3.1. Apostolicity, succession, and the ecumenical movement .......... 47 2.3.2. The Lima Report: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry .................. 52 2.3.3. The Anglican-Lutheran bilateral dialogue ................................. 56 2.3.4. The Meissen agreement ............................................................. 65 2.4. The political context of the formulation of the PCS .......................... 67 2.5. The Porvoo Common Statement ....................................................... 69 2.5.1. The beginning of the Porvoo Conversations .............................. 69 2.5.2. Aim and method of the PCS ...................................................... 72 2.5.3. Terminological strategy in the PCS ........................................... 73 2.5.4. The structure and contents of the PCS ....................................... 75 2.5.5. Church in the PCS ..................................................................... 76 2.5.6. Unity in the PCS ........................................................................ 79 2.5.7. Ordained ministry in the PCS .................................................... 82 2.5.8. Apostolic succession in the PCS ................................................ 83 2.5.9. The Porvoo Declaration ............................................................. 92 Part II: The Porvoo debate and its interpretations of the PCS ...................... 95 3. The Porvoo debate in the Church of Sweden ............................................ 97 3.1. The Constitution of the Church of Sweden ....................................... 98 3.2. The Porvoo decision in the Church of Sweden ............................... 100 3.2.1. Responses from the referral for comment ................................ 101 3.2.2. The basis for the decision of the Central Board ....................... 108 4. The Porvoo debate in the Church of England ......................................... 112 4.1. The Constitution of the Church of England .................................... 113 4.2. The process of the CoE Porvoo debate ........................................... 115 4.3. The English Porvoo debate, 1994-1995 .......................................... 118 4.3.1. The House of Bishops’ occasional paper: Apostolicity and Succession .......................................................................................... 120 4.3.2. The House of Bishops’ report on the PCS ............................... 123 4.3.3. The critique and defence of the Porvoo solution ..................... 124 4.3.4. Porvoo’s ecumenical consequences ......................................... 128 4.3.5. The PCS as opening the way to presbyteral ordinations .......... 130 4.3.6. The concept and structure of unity .......................................... 132 4.3.7. Potential for the CoE to learn from the Nordic churches ......... 132 5. The Porvoo debate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark ..... 135 5.1. General characteristic of the ELCD ................................................ 137 5.2. The Constitution of the ELCD ........................................................ 140 5.3. The decision process of the ELCD, 1995-2009 ............................... 147 5.4. The Danish Porvoo debate 1994-2010 ............................................ 151 5.4.1. The Danish understanding of the Danish Reformation ............ 154 5.4.2. The PCS as non-Lutheran ........................................................ 154 5.4.3. Visible and invisible Church ................................................... 156 5.4.4. Episcopal ministry ................................................................... 162 5.4.5. Apostolicity and episcopal succession ..................................... 165 5.4.6. Ordination – sacramental or not? ............................................. 171 5.4.7. Ecumenism and the unity of the Church .................................. 172 5.5. The official ELCD response to the PCS .......................................... 178 5.5.1. The Danish bishops’ decision, 1995 ........................................ 180 5.5.2. Developments after 1995 ......................................................... 181 5.5.3. The Danish Porvoo debate 2005-2009 ..................................... 183 5.5.4. The Signatory Declaration 2009 .............................................. 184 5.5.5. Reactions to the ELCD’s approval of the PD .......................... 200 6. The international Porvoo debate ............................................................. 203 6.1. Reactions to the PCS in the USA .................................................... 203 6.2. European Protestant evaluations of the PCS ................................... 207 6.2.1. The formal response to the PCS by VELKD ........................... 209 6.2.2. The Understanding of the Church in the PCS .......................... 213 6.2.3. Episcopacy and the visible unity of the church ......................
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