Fifteen years after Episcopal and Lutheran congregations first opened their pulpits to each other’s clergy, the Episcopal Church is gearing up for wider clergy exchanges.
To date the practice has been used primarily in rural areas, where congregations often struggle to find qualified leaders from their denominations. But the need for sharing resources, including clergy, is no longer confined to rural dioceses, church officials said.
“It’s taken a long time for people to say, Oh, I think I’ll apply to that parish,” where Lutheran congregants could welcome an Episcopal leader or vice versa, said the Rev. Margaret Rose, the presiding bishop’s deputy for ecumenical and interfaith collaboration.
“We’re really just at the beginning of saying, Oh yeah, why not? We’re on the cusp of those changes.”
Almost since 1999, when “An Agreement of Full Communion: Called to Common Mission” first authorized Lutheran-Episcopal clergy exchanges, an estimated 200 to 250 congregations nationwide have used the practice at any given time. Those figures include Episcopal churches that have an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor at the helm, and vice versa, according to the Rev. Jon Perez, a member of the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee that keeps tabs on clergy exchanges.
More here-
http://www.livingchurch.org/clergy-exchanges-increase
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