Talk to Focus on Episcopal-Lutheran "Common Mission"

The Lutheran Studies Program at Yale University Divinity School will sponsor a lecture by William Rusch on the future of Episcopal-Lutheran relations, at 4:00 p.m. on April 8, at the Berkeley Center, 363 St. Ronan St.

Rusch, director of the Faith and Order Commission for the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., will speak on developments since a proposal for full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was narrowly defeated at the 1997 ELCA national assembly. Rusch was formerly the chief ecumenical officer of the ELCA. Since that historic vote, the ELCA has developed a revised proposal, “Called to Common Mission,” that will be presented to the 1999 ELCA national assembly. The electronic text of this proposal can be viewed at http://www.elca.org/ea/ccmintro.html. Professor R. William Franklin, dean of Berkeley Divinity School and a noted authority on Episcopal ecumenical relations, will respond to Rusch.

The presentation will be followed by a service of Evening Prayer and a reception. The lecture is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Paul F. Stuehrenberg, director of the Lutheran Studies Program at Yale Divinity School, at (203) 432-5292.