Full communion leaders offer "A Word to the Churches"

Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

On this day when we commemorate the two “pillars of the church”—the apostles Peter and Paul—the heads of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are issuing “A Word to the Churches.”

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, with Bishop Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. MICHAEL HUDSON FOR GENERAL SYNOD COMMUNICATIONS
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, with Bishop Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. MICHAEL HUDSON FOR GENERAL SYNOD COMMUNICATIONS

This joint declaration comes just a few days before the four North American church leaders will gather with hundreds of other Anglicans and Lutherans at the first Joint Assembly of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, an example of how our churches are drawing closer together in full communion.

“A Word to the Churches” celebrates the fruits of a dozen years of full communion between Episcopalians and Lutherans in the United States and between Anglicans and Lutherans in Canada. It also points to a number of ways in which our churches could be working still more collaboratively in mission and ministry, both within our respective countries and across the international boundary.

Read the full text of “A Word to the Churches” here.


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