The Episcopal Church Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations holds an April 23 webinar on full-communion dialogue with the United Methodist Church.
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is moving closer to finalizing a full-communion agreement with the United Methodist Church, and that could create new opportunities for partnerships between the two denominations, according to panelists in a church webinar this week.
The Methodists’ General Conference already voted in favor of full communion with Episcopalians in 2024 while also removing the denomination’s ban on ordaining gay clergy, redefining marriage and ending official church condemnation of homosexuality. The Episcopal Church’s 82nd General Convention is scheduled to take up and possibly approve the agreement with the Methodists when bishops and deputies convene in July 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona.
This kind of ecumenical dialogue asks, “can we live into this gospel call with each other?” the Rev. RJ Powell, an East Tennessee priest who serves on the full-communion dialogue committee, said during the April 23 Zoom webinar. If the answer is yes, “a full-communion agreement just broadens what we can do,” he said.
The webinar was organized by The Episcopal Church Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, and it was moderated by the Rev. Kirsten Guidero, the church’s ecumenical and interreligious officer. She was joined by Powell, Iowa Bishop Betsey Monnot, Colombia Bishop Elías García Cárdenas and Eugene Schlesinger, an assistant professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University in California.
Monnot, the Episcopal chair of the United Methodist-Episcopal Church dialogue committee, said full-communion agreements can open doors to ecumenical partnerships at the local level. Communities in her diocese, for example, already are benefiting from The Episcopal Church’s 25-year-old full-communion agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
“I think the most important way is partnering in congregations,” Monnot said, such as Episcopal and Lutheran congregations in Iowa communities sharing a pastor or priest. She sees great opportunities for similar partnership with the United Methodist Church under the proposed new full-communion agreement, in a state with more than 500 Methodist congregations and about 50 Episcopal congregations.
“When I think about possibilities of partnering with some of those churches … so that we are able to provide the sacraments and the ministry of pastoral care that folks need, it’s just a very, very exciting possibility,” Monnot said.
García sees similar opportunities for interdenominational partnerships in Colombia. “Our dream is to be able to work together in all aspects of our Colombian society and be able to contribute to our church so we can really have unity,” he said in Spanish through an interpreter.
García serves on the Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, as does Schlesinger.
Schlesinger spoke about the historical and theological significance of full-communion dialogue with other Christian denominations. “This sort of relationship allows us to sort of hold together our own convictions about what is good and proper and also to follow the commandment of Jesus that we be one,” he said. “Neither church is trying to make the other in its own image or take over the other church.”
Certain doctrinal and sacramental beliefs and practices often can become sticking points in full- communion talks, though they need not be insurmountable barriers to a final agreement. In the United Methodist-Episcopal Church dialogue, some of the discussion has focused on the practice of Eucharist and the role of deacons, Powell said.
The two denominations have clear differences. Episcopal deacons cannot celebrate the Eucharist, but Methodist deacons can. The proposal acknowledges Methodist deacons’ sacramental authority within Methodist churches but would prohibit Methodist deacons from celebrating the Eucharist in Episcopal churches, Powell said. Episcopal deacons still would not be allowed to celebrate the Eucharist, either in Episcopal or Methodist churches.
“Both of our churches hold a robust theology of Eucharist,” Powell said, though the sacramental elements differ. Communion in Episcopal churches involves distribution of wine, while Methodist churches distribute grape juice.
Under a full-communion agreement, those practices would be preserved, with the understanding that each church would continue to distribute their tradition’s Eucharistic elements within their church setting, Powell said. When congregations come together for joint Episcopal-Methodist services, they would “simply ensure that wine and grape juice are present and available” for worshippers to choose.
The two denominations have been in discussions for decades about establishing closer relationships. Those talks took a major step forward in 1996 with the release of “Sharing in the Apostolic Communion,” a report produced by a global engagement in Anglican-Methodist conversations.
In 2006, General Convention expressed its support for continued dialogue, with full communion as the ultimate goal. “We look forward to the day when full communion is established between The Episcopal Church and The United Methodist Church,” bishops and deputies said in the resolution they adopted that year.
The most recent phase of the United Methodist-Episcopal Church dialogue follows General Convention’s vote in 2024 to “affirm the goal of full communion between The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church” after the Methodists voted months earlier to endorse a full-communion agreement.
The Episcopal Church is currently in full communion with eight other churches: the ELCA; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; the Moravian Church-Northern and Southern Provinces; the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India; the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht; the Philippine Independent Church; the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.