The Porvoo Declaration


18th November 1993

We, the Church of Denmark, the Church of England, the Estonian Evangelical-Lutheran Church, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Iceland, the Church of Ireland, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Latvia, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Lithuania, the Church of Norway, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Sweden and the Church in Wales, on the basis of our common understanding of the nature and purpose of the Church, fundamental agreement in faith and our agreement on episcopacy in the service of the apostolicity of the Church, contained in Chapters II--IV of The Porvoo Common Statement, make the following acknowledgements and commitments:

a (i) we acknowledge one another's churches as churches belonging to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ and truly participating in the apostolic mission of the whole people of God;

(ii) we acknowledge that in all our churches the Word of God is authentically preached, and the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist are duly administered;

(iii) we acknowledge that all our churches share in the common confession of the apostolic faith;

(iv) we acknowledge that one another's ordained ministries are given by God as instruments of his grace and as possessing not only the inward call of the Spirit, but also Christ's commission through his body, the Church;

(v) we acknowledge that personal, collegial and communal oversight (episcope) is embodied and exercised in all our churches in a variety of forms, in continuity of apostolic life, mission and ministry;

(vi) we acknowledge that the episcopal office is valued and maintained in all our churches as a visible sign of expressing and serving the Church's unity and continuity in apostolic life, mission and ministry.

b We commit ourselves:
(i) to share a common life in mission and service, to pray for and with one another, and to share resources;

(ii) to welcome one another's members to receive sacramental and pastoral ministrations;

(iii) to regard baptized members of all our churches as members of our own;

(iv) to welcome diaspora congregations into the life of the indigenous churches, to their mutual enrichment;

(v) to welcome persons episcopally ordained in any of our churches to the office of bishop, priest or deacon to serve, by invitation and in accordance with any regulations which may from time to time be in force, in that ministry in the receiving church without reordination;

(vi) to invite one another's bishops normally to participate in the laying on of hands at the ordination of bishops as a sign of the unity and continuity of the Church;

(vii) to work towards a common understanding of diaconal ministry;

(viii) to establish appropriate forms of collegial and conciliar consultation on significant matters of faith and order, life and work;

(ix) to encourage consultations of representatives of our churches, and to facilitate learning and exchange of ideas and information in theological and pastoral matters;

(x) to establish a contact group to nurture our growth in communion and to co-ordinate the implementation of this agreement.

Source: News of Liturgy, number 228, December 1993.

News of Liturgy is a monthly newsletter, edited by Bishop Colin Buchanan and published by Grove Books Ltd, Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, NG9 3DS, England; ISSN 0263-7170.
COMMENTARY BY BP. COLIN BUCHANAN

There was published on 18 November 1993 the `Porvoo Common Statement', within a much larger report of the General Synod Council for Christian Unity entitled _Together in Mission and Ministry: The Porvoo Common Statement with Essays on Church and Ministry in Northern Europe_ (CH, 218pp. #8.50). There is a further sub-title `Conversations between The British and Irish Anglican Churches and The Nordic and Baltic Lutheran Churches'. Porvoo itself is not where any of the work was done (apparently the name of the place where the text was agreed---Jarvenpaa with three "a"s---was not thought easy to remember or even, for the insular English, to pronounce), but it was in Porvoo cathedral, also in Finland, that the final eucharist was held, so its name was adopted.

The Statement itself runs to just over 27 pages, and within that there is `The Porvoo Declaration' which we print below [posted separately by SK]. It is introduced by the words `We recommend that our churches jointly make the following Declaration'.

Porvoo Background

Anyone who knows anything about the Church of England's negotiations with other churches' let alone knowing anything about the Scandinavian `Evangelical-Lutheran' Churches, will not be surprised at the weight given by the report to episcopacy. It is worth noting, however, that in general Anglicans in the United Kingdom have not been used to negotiations with Lutherans, as Lutheranism has no substantial presence in these islands. In the particular grouping of what are popularly called the `Nordic and Baltic' Lutheran Churches, there is this comparison with historic Anglicanism in England---these are folk churches, linked in various ways to the state (though not of course in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia). They are all also episcopal, though the oft-quoted Swedish axiom about the historic succession also has to be remembered, `We retained it as though we had it not'---and amongst Lutherans issues of faith have always ranked as more important than those of order.

However, Anglicans always pursue the issue of succession. And here the story is a combination of the wonderful and the wry, or even awry. In Sweden, Finland, and Latvia a historic succession of bishops, stretching without a break through the Reformation, can be shown. In Estonia and Lithuania that succession has been introduced from Finland. In Norway there was a break in the succession at the Reformation, though the office of bishop itself continued. The chapter on Norway finishes with apparent innocence `At the bishop's consecration through prayer and laying on of hands, all the Nordic churches are represented by a bishop who takes part in the consecration ceremony' (p.99). Anglicans have also participated, and have viewed the `real' succession as restored in Norway through such participation. But in Denmark (which went through the same process at the Reformation), and consequently in Iceland, there was a complete break in the succession. And here the Churches decline to have any, even unobtrusive, injection of the `real' succession. They have been unwilling to have any suggestion of the esse of the church being thus imported (p.89). This has almost certainly been in defence of Luther's doctrine that it is justification which is articulus stanti aut cadentis ecclesiae, though that is not explicit in the chapter. The interesting question to Anglicans must be whether b(v) in the Declaration covers such bishops presbyters and deacons. The crucial sentence in the report itself runs:

`[Affirming the value and use of the sign of the historic episcopal succession] means that those churches in which the sign has at some time not been used are free to recognize the value of the sign and should embrace it without denying their own apostolic continuity. This also means that those churches in which the sign has been used are free to recognize the reality of the episcopal office and should affirm the apostolic continuity of those churches in which the sign of the episcopal succession has not been used.' (p.29)


Source: News of Liturgy, number 228, December 1993.
News of Liturgy is a monthly newsletter, edited by Bishop Colin Buchanan and published by Grove Books Ltd, Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, NG9 3DS, England; ISSN 0263-7170.