Lutheran Church Leader to Speak at Yale

Last summer, for the first time since the 16th century, four Protestant denominations took official steps to reconcile their long-standing differences. Yale University Divinity School will host a colloquium to discuss the implications of the agreement for full communion adopted last summer by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and three churches from the Reformed tradition (the Reformed Church in America, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., and the United Church of Christ). The colloquium will be held at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29, in the Marquand Chapel of the Yale Divinity School.

The Rev. Timothy Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif., will be the keynote speaker. Lull, a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Graduate School, served as co-chair of the Lutheran/Reformed Dialogue, and was co-editor of the resulting document, “A Formula of Agreement.” Adoption of this document by the church bodies marked the first time in four centuries that U.S. confessional churches took official steps to mend the divisions between them.

The academic colloquium will be followed by a worship service to celebrate the historic accord. Worship will be led by regional leaders from the Lutheran and Reformed traditions.

These events are free and open to the public.