Porvoo Communion

Countries with churches of the Porvoo Communion. The Churches of the Anglican Communion have pink or violet names, while the Nordic Lutheran Churches have red names

The Porvoo Communion is a communion of 15 mainly northern European Anglican and Lutheran churches. It was established in 1992 by an agreement entitled the Porvoo Common Statement which establishes full communion between and among the churches.^[1] The agreement was negotiated in the town of Järvenpää in Finland, but the Communion's name comes from the city of Porvoo where there was a joint celebration of Holy Communion after the formal signing in Järvenpää.

In 1938, the Archbishop of Canterbury invited the representatives of the Estonian Lutheran Church and Latvian Lutheran Church to Lambeth Palace in order to reach "altar and pulpit fellowship" between the Anglican and Baltic Lutheran churches. This process came to a formal conclusion with the establishment of the much wider Porvoo Communion in 1992. The churches involved are the Anglican churches of the British Isles and the Lutheran churches of the Northern European countries. Later negotiations brought the Anglican churches of the Iberian Peninsula into the agreement. These churches all share episcopal polity.

The Porvoo Communion has no central office or overseer. Each member church has a contact person, and these contact persons form a contact group which meets every year. Two bishops, one Lutheran and the other Anglican, are co-moderators of the contact group, and there are two co-secretaries also drawn from both traditions.^[2] There are also conferences and meetings organized to discuss issues of concern to the entire Communion.^[3]

Participants

Signatories of the Porvoo Communion:^[4]

1994

• The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania
• The Church of Norway
• The Scottish Episcopal Church
• The Church of Sweden

1995

• The Church of England
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
• The Church of Ireland
• The Church of Iceland
• The Church in Wales

2001

• The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church (Portugal)
• The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church

2010

• The Church of Denmark

The Church of Denmark voted in December 2009 to join the Porvoo Communion as a full member and signed the Porvoo Declaration on October 3, 2010.^[5]

2014

• The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad
• The Lutheran Church in Great Britain

Observers:^[6]

• The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia since 1994

See also

• Called to Common Mission
• Waterloo Declaration
• Community of Protestant Churches in Europe
• Ecumenical Movement

References

1. ↑ The Porvoo Common Statement
2. ↑ Porvoo Communion. Accessed May 10, 2014.
3. ↑ Interchange. Accessed May 10, 2014.
4. ↑ The Porvoo Communion: Anglican Churches and The Porvoo Communion: Lutheran Churches. Accessed May 10, 2014.
5. ↑ Official press release. Accessed October 3, 2010.
6. ↑ The Porvoo Communion: Observer Churches. Accessed May 10, 2014.

Further reading

• Tjørhom, Ola, ed. (2002). Apostolicity and Unity: Essays on the Porvoo Common Statement. Geneva: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-2-8254-1375-3. 

External links

• Official website
• Anglican-Lutheran Society