Rejoicing Anglicans could not be denied the opportunity to express their joy.
Moments after a vote that officially sanctioned full communion between the Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran churches in Canada, they broke into song.
Archbishop Michael Peers, the primate, had reminded Synod members only the day before that applauding after a resolution is passed or defeated is improper.
So, when the vote was clear in favour of full communion (with only one member in each house, bishops and clergy/laity, voting against the motion) one member spontaneously began the Doxology, a song of thanksgiving sung when the gifts of bread and wine are brought to the altar. Moments later, some 500 synod members and visitors, many who had been involved in the Anglican-Lutheran dialogue for years, stood and joined in the singing, which ended with one happy “Alleluia!”
Two waiting Lutherans, Rev. Jon Fogleman and Rev. Gordon Jensen, then approached the stage and presented an emotional Archbishop Peers with a basket of bread and wine. Mr. Fogleman was the Lutheran church’s appointment to the Anglican Church’s Council of General Synod and Mr. Jensen teaches at a Lutheran seminary in western Canada.
“For myself,” commented Archbishop Michael Peers, “this is a moment of great rejoicing.”
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, meeting for its national convention at the neighbouring campus of Wilfrid Laurier University, also passed the identical motion, which called for the adoption and implementation of the Waterloo Declaration.
The news of the Lutheran vote came to the floor of General Synod about 10 minutes later as Synod members debated a canon on marriage as Archbishop Peers was passed a cell phone.
The Lutherans, meanwhile, elected a new national leader to succeed Bishop Telmor Sartison who is retiring. The convention took six ballots to elect Rev. Ray Schultz, the current bishop of the British Columbia synod, as the ELCIC’s third national bishop. He received 192 votes out of 349 votes cast, edging out Rev. Susan Johnson, the church’s eastern synod assistant to the bishop.