The World Council of Churches (WCC) has hailed the 50th anniversary of a landmark agreement between Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches in Europe in which they recognised each other’s baptism and ordination, and stated they were able to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

Named the Leuenberg Agreement after the meeting place near Basel where the discussions took place, the text was finalised on March 16 1973. It provided the theological basis for the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE), through which the signatories committed themselves to common witness and service in Europe.

The agreement declared that the mutual condemnations from the Reformation era between Lutheran and Reformed no longer applied to the present day doctrinal positions of the signatory churches, and stated that these churches now shared “church fellowship,” sometimes called ecclesial communion.

“This has been an important step in our common quest for visible unity in one faith and in one Eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and common life in Christ, through witness and service to the world, and to advance towards that unity in order that the world may believe,” WCC general secretary the Rev Prof Dr Jerry Pillay said in a letter to the CPCE executive president, the Rev Dr John Bradbury, and general secretary the Rev Dr Mario Fischer.

Since 1973, the Leuenberg Agreement has been signed by 104 churches, including six in Latin America, and seven European Methodist churches belonging to the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe as a result of a joint declaration between the CPCE and the European Methodist Council – though the actual number of CPCE members is now 95 as a result of church unions, mergers, or territorial reorganisation.

(WCC)