John Hannah In the early 1960s the ecumenical vanguard was the Consultation on Church Union (COCU). It involved Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Congregationalists in an effort to bring together their quite diverse and mutually exclusive understandings of ministry and church polity. American Lutherans were not involved, but we are evolving slowly but surely toward restoration of…
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John Hannah Whenever we engage Christians who are not Lutheran, our own identity is challenged. We find ourselves asking questions like these: “Who are we as Lutherans?” “Where did we come from?” “Who were we?” “How did we get to be what we are now?” The late, great Jaroslav Pelikan is said to have invented…
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By John Hannah In 1965 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod accepted the invitation to join other American Lutherans in initiating bilateral theological dialogues with Roman Catholics. The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue has continued for forty years. Missouri remained a member and sent representatives through 1993 and has recently asked to rejoin the dialogue. I believe that we…
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