ELCD and Methodist Church sign a historic agreement
ELCD and the Methodist Church celebrate their strong ecumenical relationship
”It will be exciting to see how the co-operation can be developed and function as an inspiration for the local congregations," says bishop Christian Alsted (right) from the Methodist Church in Denmark.
"One faith, one baptism, one grace.” That is the title of the first national bilateral agreement between the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark The Methodist Church in Denmark (as a part of the United Methodist Church).
With this agreement about church communion, the churches acknowledge each other as equal churches, including acknowledging each other’s baptism, Eucharist and offices. Furthermore, the churches confirm that they can co-celebrate Church services and that a pastor does not need to be re-ordained if he or she is called to minister in the other church.
ELCD and The Methodist Church have enjoyed full communion, ever since ELCD joined the Leuenberg Agreement in 2001, which is a co-operation agreement between the protestant churches in Europe. The Methodist Church joined this co-operation in 1994.
It is thus a local implementation of the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, which after years of in-depth ecumenical dialogue is being carried out.
”It has been an exciting learning process, and we have grown much closer to each other. There are still theological differences between the churches, but with the agreement we demonstrate that we have established a very good relationship with each other, and that there are excellent possibilities for future co-operation,” says Henning Toft Bro, bishop of the Diocese of Aalborg.
”It will be exciting to see how the co-operation can be developed and function as an inspiration for the local congregations. Through this agreement we also meet the commitment to continued dialogue between the churches, which is the one of the principal ideas of the Leuenberg Communion. So the Methodist Church and The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark will continue the mutual dialogue, also after the agreement is in place,” says bishop Christian Alsted from the Methodist Church in Denmark.
The agreement will be celebrated in Strandby Methodist Church 4th of March 2018 at 10 a.m. and Copenhagen Cathedral 11th of March 2018 at 10 a.m. Everyone is welcome to join.
Read the agreement here (in Danish):
