In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada

One Flock, One Shepherd

Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians — Called to Walk Together in Full Communion

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada logo
Anglican Church of Canada logo
The Moravian Church Logo

Our Moravian, Lutheran, and Anglican traditions are each historic communities of faith in Jesus Christ, which have roots in the ancient common tradition of the apostolic Church. We were also each shaped in many ways by the reforming impulses of 15th and 16th century Europe. At various times in our early histories, we found important points of contact and collaboration.

Today, we find ourselves as neighbours in various parts of our respective global communions. In Canada, the Moravian Church in North America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada have a number of congregations that live and minister alongside one another. Local ministry collaborations have developed to varying extents and degrees, and increasingly so in recent years. These emerging grassroots connections, along with a growing sense of the need for churches to walk faithfully together as disciples into an uncertain future, call us to seek full communion and deeper ministry partnerships together according to the prayer of our common Saviour.

(Most of the text above has been excerpted, with minor edits, from One Flock, One Shepherd, the proposed Lutheran-Anglican-Moravian Declaration.)

Our identities and traditions

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The Lutheran-Anglican-Moravian working group has assembled a resource, “Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians – A Family Reunion,” providing additional context and history for each of our three churches.

Learning more about one another

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Worship looks similar and different from one congregation to the next—both within denominations and also across our Lutheran, Anglican and Moravian traditions. Learn some of the main features of worship in each denomination. 

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“United, not uniform.” This video explains how full communion can guide us to recognize and respect one another’s faith traditions, and support each other, even when we disagree.

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In John 17:20, Jesus prayed for us so that we could be one. Exposure to a diverse yet related set of traditions presents opportunities to learn and draw from the gifts each denomination offers, and strengthens our ministry in Christ’s church.



One Flock, One Shepherd
Proposed Lutheran-Anglican-Moravian Declaration

Report Cover

This proposed agreement, One Flock, One Shepherd: Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians— Called to Walk Together in Full Communion, outlines the full communion declaration which is anticipated to be voted on at Assembly 2023. The declaration has been authorized for further consideration across our churches by elected leaders in the Moravian Church in Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Lutheran-Anglican-Moravian working group members

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Paul Gehrs
Ilze Kuplens-Ewart
   (until March 2022)
James Hendricksen
   (until June 2022)
Faith Nostbakken

Anglican Church of Canada

Scott Sharman
Dane Neufeld
Danielle Key
Philip Hobson
Mark MacDonald
   (until April 2022)

The Moravian Church

James Lavoy
Matt Gillard
Blair Couch
Rowan Simmons

For more information or additional details about the working group, contact:

Rev. Paul Gehrs, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Rev. Canon Dr. Scott Sharman, Anglican Church of Canada
Rev. James Lavoy, Moravian Church in Canada

Assembly 2023
Joint statements
Current work
Past work

A website of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

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Logo of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 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.”