Along with eliminating homosexuality as a bar to ordination as deacon elder or minister, representatives to the recent General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. also agreed to move forward with a dialogue with The Episcopal Church aimed at encouraging closer relationships between congregations.
 
The agreement, which must be approved by The Episcopal Church's 76th General Convention next year, would permit Presbyterian and Episcopal clergy to perform ministerial functions in each other’s congregations “when requested and approved by the diocesan bishop and local presbytery.” It stops short of a full communion agreement like the one that The Episcopal Church signed with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2000.
 
Under the polity of the Presbyterian Church, the General Assembly action must be ratified by a simple majority of the denomination’s 173 regional presbyteries. That ratification is expected to be completed by the General Assembly’s next meeting in 2010.
 
Bishop Christopher Epting, the Presiding Bishop’s deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, described the agreement as “the way to take one step forward on the local level” which eventually “helps advance the whole ecumenical cause.”
 
This summer’s General Assembly meeting dealt with many of the same issues concerning human sexuality and the status of same-sex relationships that have confronted The Episcopal Church in recent years. The vote on the ecumenical agreement was “one of those really nice moments,” according to the Rev. William Forbes, the corporate secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Pensions and its vice president for church relations.
 
In giving its approval the General Assembly also called for “further study and dialogue in the areas of diaconal ministries, historic episcopate, the office of elder, and other related subjects as a continued effort toward full recognition of our ministries and interchangeability of our ministers.”
 
While The Episcopal Church requires Holy Eucharist to be presided over by bishops or priests ordained by bishops in historic succession, the Presbyterian Church requires both a minister of word and sacrament and an elder to preside at the Lord’s Supper.
 
Episcopalians and Presbyterians were already engaged in mission and ministry before the latest agreement. Pastor Forbes has been affiliated at Trinity Church in Asbury Park, N.J., for more than two years. His relationship with the parish was approved by the Presbytery of Elizabeth’s committee on ministry and by Bishop George Councell of New Jersey.
 
“Everybody [at Trinity] treats me like one of the pastors,” he said. And yet, there is a difference, he explained. “I am still at the table; I still dispense the gifts,” but he cannot preside at the Eucharist. That difference is “okay with me” Pastor Forbes said, but at the same time he said he welcomes the possibilities afforded by the new agreement.
 
Episcopal News Service contributed to this report.
 
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