The Porvoo Churches

The phrase "the Porvoo Churches" refers to two families of Churches in Northern Europe – ten churches in all – that entered into a new agreement after several years of formal conversations. Four of the ten are Anglican Churches (the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Episcopal Church of Scotland and the Church in Wales) and six are Lutheran (the Estonian Evangelical-Lutheran Church, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Iceland, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Lithuania, the Church of Norway, and the Church of Sweden). That fellowship – in some ways new, in all ways deeper – involves a common sacramental life and ministry and is often called the Porvoo Communion.

The Declaration is named after a town in south-eastern Finland, Porvoo (pronounced pore-voh; known also by its Swedish name Borgå) where the members of the commission which produced it worked and worshipped during their final session in October 1992. The Lutheran Churches of Denmark and Latvia were also involved in formulating the Declaration, and though they have not yet signed it, both they and the ten signatory Churches are committed to maintaining as high a degree of fellowship as possible.

The Porvoo Declaration means that the signatory Churches

• see themselves as sharing in a common mission
• offer each other's members both sacramental and pastoral care
• welcome overseas congregations of each other's Churches
• accept (with some limitations) the ministry of each other's ordained clergy
• participate in each other's episcopal ordinations
• consult on important theological, moral and social issues facing the Church in northern Europe
• encourage exchanges of ministers, students, theologians, and staff
• nurture deeper fellowship of each other's parish communities by means of twinning and exchanges.

These commitments have important and practical implications in both directions. They affect all the Anglican Churches, and churches in communion with them, in Continental Europe. But working out the agreement has a particularly significant impact in the Diocese in Europe (which is a diocese of the Church of England, but in Continental Europe). In the Nordic and Baltic countries the parishes of that Diocese are much more clearly part of the life and witness of the native churches. Local clergy can assist with services; the bishops can offer pastoral support to clergy and parishes; and new opportunities for cooperation in every sphere of mission and social engagement have opened up.

It is not only in the north that the Declaration makes a difference. The Nordic Churches, especially those of Sweden and Finland, and to a lesser degree Norway, have chaplaincies throughout Europe which are often very close to those of the Diocese in Europe. Where that is the case, the close cooperation that has existed for many years will form a solid basis for greater collaboration, and it is hoped that church councils and clergy will take every opportunity to make the most of the new range of opportunities before them.

The prospect of closer relationships, and of joint mission and social action, has inevitably raised a range of fears similar to those brought to light by the current search for suitable provincial structures for the Anglican Churches in Continental Europe. There are many things which are not part of the Porvoo Declaration. It is not intended that Lutherans become Anglican, or that Anglicans become Lutheran. There is no sense of the Anglican Churches weakening their commitment to the historic succession of bishops as a requirement for the full visible unity of the Church. No one will be compelled to worship in another language. No parish will be detached from its parent Church or diocese and made subject to another jurisdiction. No Anglican will be subject to church tax. There are parallels in the process that this booklet serves.

Anglicans remain committed to all-round ecumenism, and the Porvoo Declaration is a necessary part of that. It does not imply a preference for union with Protestant Churches. Nor will all Anglicans and all Lutherans the world over share the same degree of fellowship. The Porvoo agreements and commitments are specific to the signatory Churches and to the places where their members minister and witness.

From the outset, dimensions of potential growth were built in to give the agreement directions in which to develop and fulfil people's hopes; and a contact group is charged by the Churches with the oversight of the implementation of the Declaration. It meets annually and is responsible for ensuring the full exploitation of the opportunities provided. Its co-chairmen are Bishop Erik Vikström, Bishop of Porvoo, Finland, and Bishop John Neill, Bishop of Cashel and Ossory in Ireland. Bishop Erik is the representative of the Lutheran member Churches in the Consultations for an appropriate Anglican Provincial Structure for Continental Europe.

Information may be obtained from the co-secretaries: The Revd Dr Charles Hill and The Revd Dr Johan Dalman.

You may wish to consult the website:

http://www.porvoochurches.org/

July 1999

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