In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada
Telmor Sartison, then-national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and Archbishop Michael Peers, then-primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, sign the Waterloo Declaration in 2001.
Telmor Sartison, then-national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and Archbishop Michael Peers, then-primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, sign the Waterloo Declaration in 2001.

From Generation to Generation: 25 Years in Full Communion

June 29, 2026
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“We are ready to be co-workers with God in whatever tasks of mission serve the Gospel. We give glory to God for the gift of unity already ours in Christ, and we pray for the fuller realization of this gift in the entire Church.”

With these concluding words of the Waterloo Declaration, read aloud on July 6, 2001, Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada committed themselves to a shared future in full communion. They chose to treat differences in areas such as church order, faith expression and liturgical style as gifts that can strengthen unity. They chose partnership, mutual responsibility and a reconciled future over inherited division. Through common discernment, joint witness, shared ministry and so much more, we have learned again and again that unity in Christ is not merely an institutional arrangement, but a gift of grace that strengthens the Church for joining God’s mission in the world.

This 25th anniversary of our partnership comes at a time of great political, economic and ecological uncertainty, and of growing distrust among nations, communities and institutions. Our churches are also navigating significant structural and leadership transitions, trying to adapt to different capacities and resource levels, and seeking new ways to proclaim and embody the Gospel in rapidly changing contexts. In such a moment, the witness of full communion matters more than ever. When churches choose cooperation over competition and shared life over isolation, they offer a small glimpse of God’s healing and reconciling vision for all.

As we give thanks for the blessings of full communion over the last quarter century, we know the call to widen the circle of communion with all who follow the way of Jesus is ongoing. Recently, we extended mutual recognition of our respective agreements with our Churches Beyond Borders partners across the Canada-USA divide, and both our churches now share full communion with the Moravian Church in North America. As Christian ministry presence in Canada continues to evolve, we believe the years ahead will require us to embrace deeper collaboration with many other churches and communities of faith with whom we already share substantial common ground.

As we mark this milestone, let us then renew once more the vocation God has entrusted to us. May Lutherans and Anglicans across Canada continue to learn from one another, pray with one another and serve alongside one another. May our shared commitment deepen our service to the common good and equip the next generation to inherit the structures of full communion and extend its promise with fresh imagination and courage.

With gratitude for the past and confidence in God’s leading for the future, we commend our congregations, ministries and leaders to God’s grace, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us forward.

We also invite Anglican and Lutheran churches across Canada to lift up our 25th anniversary in prayer by including the following petition in Sunday worship on July 5, 2026, or at other suitable occasions near the anniversary date:

God of unity and grace, you have bound us together in the body of your Son Jesus Christ and strengthened us through the gifts we share with one another. We thank you for 25 years of full communion between Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada. By your Holy Spirit, deepen our fellowship, renew our common witness, and lead us into ever greater partnership in your mission. And in all these things, may they be for the life of the world. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Dr. Larry Kochendorfer
National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada


The Most Rev. Shane Parker
Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

Matthew 10:40-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, 2 and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”