welcomes the remarkable progress in Anglican-Lutheran relationships during the last decade in many parts of the world;
commends for study the report of the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission, The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1996);
noting the approval by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America of the Concordat of Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the narrow vote against the Concordat by the ELCA, hopes that the draft revision of the Concordat, currently being undertaken by the ELCA in consultation with representatives from ECUSA, will provide a firm basis for the two churches to move to full communion;
commends the progress toward full communion between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada as set forth in the Waterloo Declaration (1997) for consideration by both churches in 2001;
encourages the continuation of close relations with the Lutheran Churches of Denmark and Latvia, which participated fully in the Porvoo Conversations but have not so far become signatories;
welcomes the development of dialogue in Australia, and of dialogue and collaboration in the search for justice and human rights and the joint pastoral care of scattered Christian communities in Africa;
affirms the growing fellowship between churches of the Anglican and Lutheran Communions in other regions of the world, and encourages further steps toward agreement in faith, eucharistic sharing and common mission on the way to the goal of full, visible unity;
rejoices not only in the Porvoo Common Statement between the Anglican Churches of Britain and Ireland and the Lutheran Churches of the Nordic and Baltic region, but also in the Meissen Common Statement with the Evangelical Church in Germany, which includes Lutheran, Reformed and United Churches, and looks forward to the proposed agreement between the Anglican churches of Britain and Ireland and the French Lutheran and Reformed churches; and
recommends consultation with the Lutheran World Federation about the continuation of the work of the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission.
