Local Lutherans and Episcopalians Learn About Each Other

Later this summer, the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will vote on whether to enter into a Concordat of Agreement for full communion with each other. The Concordat would allow the denominations' clergy to serve at each other's churches. Two local churches, St. George's Episcopal Church of Glenn Dale and Good Samaritan Lutheran Church of Lanham, are preparing for this possible agreement by learning about the Concordat and each other's denominations. Congregation members have visited each other's churches in order to discuss the basic beliefs of Anglicanism and Lutheranism, and on Ascension Day, May 8, the two churches held a joint sung Eucharist service at St. George's.

Episcopalians and Lutherans share similar beliefs and forms of worship; the denominations' primary source of disagreement has been over their differing views on the role of bishops, their highest order of clergy.