Catholics and Lutherans have made yet another step toward ecumenical commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. They have published a joint “Common Prayer,” booklet which provides a template for an ecumenical service, including prayers, appropriate hymns and themes for sermons.
At first, Catholic leaders in Germany, Luther’s home country, balked at the idea of jointly “celebrating” the anniversary. But the 93-page report, “From Conflict to Communion,” published in 2013 after joint discussions between the two churches relieved those concerns. They announced that they would mark the anniversary together and spun the Reformation as the start of a shared 500-year journey not a single divisive event.
The latest ecumenical guidelines say all services should stress the concepts of thanksgiving, repentance and common commitment, with the main focus on Jesus.
Ecumenical discussions in recent decades have reached such a reconciliation that theologians recently suggested they explore the possibility of sharing Communion, which the Catholic Church does not allow with other Christians.
The “Common Prayer” booklet stresses the shared beliefs between Roman Catholicism and Lutherans. The section on repentance admits the post-Reformation wars of religion and says, “We deeply regret the evil things that Catholics and Lutherans have mutually done to each other.”
“This common prayer marks a very special moment in our common journey from conflict to communion,” said the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of LWF, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican’s ecumenical department in a joint letter accompanying the guidelines.
The booklet suggests that ecumenical services have two presiders, one Catholic and one Lutheran, and several prayer readers of both faiths. They should use hymns known to both Catholics and Protestants, and presiders are instructed to lead a prayer that laments “that even good actions of reform and renewal had often unintended negative consequences.”
For Luther, it was much more than that! His loyalty to the Bible exposed the corruptions of Rome, and he fearlessly exposed the man of sin. He would be horrified if he saw what the church he founded is doing.
“All the world wondered after the beast…” Revelation 13:3