Members of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada met for the second time in a joint special convocation for worship, plenaries, Bible study and fellowship from June 27-July 2 in Calgary, Alberta. Photo courtesy of Carter Brooks

[Episcopal News Service] Members of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada met for the second time in a joint special convocation for worship, plenaries, Bible study and fellowship from June 27-July 2 in Calgary, Alberta.

The Rt. Rev. William Franklin, assisting bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, New York, attended the convocation for a day and a half on behalf of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, whose travel is currently limited due to recent health issues. During the convocation on June 30, Franklin gave a speech to celebrate the signing of what is known as the Memorandum of Mutual Recognition.

The memorandum is a written commitment among four churches, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, to acknowledge and learn from their histories of racism while taking tangible steps to dismantle it systematically.

“My hope, as an ecumenicist, is that this agreement can be a mechanism and a model as we look at our history and advocate for our future: in our work related to the tragedy of the Indigenous boarding schools and our relationships with the First Nations people, and the legacies of racism,” Franklin said in his speech, according to the prepared text provided to Episcopal News Service.

In full communion, The Episcopal Church, the ELCA and the two Canada churches form Churches Beyond Borders, an ecumenical partnership dedicated to addressing social justice issues through a Christian lens. Churches Beyond Borders has also been working on education about churches’ past role in maintaining the Doctrine of Discovery, a centuries-old theological and political doctrine used to justify colonization and the oppression of Indigenous people.

Churches Beyond Borders is an extension of the 2001 Waterloo Declaration, an establishment of full communion between the Anglican and Lutheran churches in Canada, as well as Called to Common Mission, an agreement establishing full communion between The Episcopal Church and the ELCA ratified in 1999.

During the convocation, attendees participated in a joint prayer service celebrating the full communion agreement between the four churches; it also included the exchanging of a chalice and paten, a first between the churches, as a symbol of their new relationship, according to the Rev. Margaret Rose, ecumenical and interreligious deputy to the Episcopal presiding bishop.

Rose told ENS that all The Episcopal Church’s ecumenical agreements are important because they help churches investigate their history and “work on a more just future.”

“It’s always important for The Episcopal Church to reach out to other partners because it helps us do our work better,” she said.

In his speech, Franklin additionally addressed concerns about the rise of Christian nationalism, calling it a threat to democracy; however, Franklin also said that churches can counter Christian nationalism with a different narrative, “that of the message of the Holy Eucharist.”

“In these times of threat and terror, what we need is more Jesus, more Church, more faith, more real Christianity to overcome the ways in which faith has been hijacked in the service of politics and division and hate,” he said. “Together, in Canada and the U.S., we who have signed this agreement can use our joint strength to fight the demons of fascism and white supremacy that we cannot deny are all around us.”

Rose said that staff counterparts of Churches Beyond Borders meet regularly on Zoom to discuss what their churches can do to contribute to supporting their joint causes.

“Working with an ecumenical partner on a project or on life in faith, or the ways God is calling the church to be one, is about working toward unity — in diversity, but unity,” she said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.