Following Our Shephard to Full Communion

Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations home > Full Communion Relationships > The Moravian Church > Following Our Shepherd > Background

Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion

> next topic

Background

Reception of the dialogue report, "Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion," was facilitated by the Lutheran-Moravian Coordinating Committee. The Lutheran members of the committee were appointed by the Church Council in April 1997.
The members of the Lutheran-Moravian Coordinating Committee were:

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Rev. Walter Wagner, co-chair

The Rev. Ronald Rinn

The Rev. Martha Sheaffer

The Rev. Darlis J. Swan, staff

Moravian Church in America

The Rev. Otto Dreydoppel Jr., co-chair

The Rev. C. Daniel Crews

The Rev. Gary L. Harke, staff

The mandate of the Lutheran-Moravian Coordinating Committee was to:

prepare the churches to vote on the proposal at the Moravian Synods of 1998 and the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly;
encourage and enable local dialogue and experimentation, which would experientially prepare church representatives to vote on the proposal; and
see to the printing, distribution, and study of "Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion."

The Lutheran-Moravian Coordinating Committee prepared a resolution proposing full communion between the two churches. In May 1998 the Synod of the Southern Province of The Moravian Church in America approved the proposal, and the Northern Province took the same action in August 1998. The proposal was transmitted by the ELCA Church Council to the 1999 Churchwide Assembly in November, 1997. All of the information regarding the resolution and the proposal before the 1999 Churchwide Assembly can be found in the document "Following Our Shepherd to Full Communion."