| Porvoo Communion | |
|---|---|
_(36291766400).jpg) The distinctivegable ofPorvoo Cathedral used to symbolize the Porvoo Communion | |
| Type | Communion |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Anglican Lutheran |
| Region | Europe |
| Origin | 1992 |
| Members | 45,000,000 |
| Official website | https://porvoocommunion.org/ |
ThePorvoo Communion is a communion of 15 predominantly northern EuropeanAnglican andEvangelical Lutheran churches, with some church bodies in the Iberian Peninsula of the same denomination. It was established in 1992 by a theological agreement entitled thePorvoo Common Statement which establishesfull communion between and among these churches.[1] The agreement was negotiated in the town ofJärvenpää inFinland, but the communion's name comes from the nearby city ofPorvoo, where a jointEucharist (orHoly Communion) was celebrated inPorvoo Cathedral after the formal signing in Järvenpää. The Porvoo Communion claims to represent 45 million members among the member churches, approximately 50% of Europe's Protestants.[2]
The first seeds to the broader communion formed in 1992 were planted in 1922 when the Anglican Church and the Church of Sweden agreed to enter communion with each other. In 1938, theArchbishop of Canterbury, symbolic head of theAnglican Communion, invited the representatives of theEstonian Evangelical Lutheran Church andLatvian Lutheran Church toLambeth Palace in London 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 several Anglican churches of the British Isles (headed by the foundingChurch of England) and the other Evangelical Lutheran churches of the Northern European countries. Later negotiations brought the small Anglican churches of Spain and Portugal into the agreement. These churches all shareepiscopal polity of church organization with thethree-fold ministry ofbishops,priests (orpastors) anddeacons within thehistorical episcopate withapostolic succession (only bishops ordaining clergy or other bishops, priests and deacons). This is based on thethreefold office of the early church.
The Porvoo Communion has no central office or overseer. Each member church has a contact person and these form a contact group which meets each 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 each tradition. Both are members of theLutheran World Federation and the Anglican Communion.[3] There are also various conferences and meetings organized to discuss issues of concern to the entire Communion.[4]
Signatories of the Porvoo Communion:[5][6]
1994
Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania
Church of Norway
Church of Sweden1995
Church of England
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
Church in Wales2001
2010
2014
2025
Observers:
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, since 1994[9]Contemporary conferences of theological experts and representatives of Christian denominations convened to resolve matters of doctrine and practice | ||
| TheAnglican Churchwith the |  | |
| TheAssyrian Church of the Eastwith the | ||
| TheRoman Catholic Churchwith the | ||
| TheEastern Orthodox Churchwith the | ||
| TheLutheran Churchwith the | ||
| TheOriental Orthodox Churchwith the | ||
| Multilateral | ||
| See also | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
