Heads of full-communion churches gather at LAM Commission meeting

November 5, 2026

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Dear friends,

Leaders of the Moravian Church, Northern Province, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada gathered in Toronto October 28-30 for a historic moment: their first in-person meeting since our three churches entered into a full-communion relationship. This gathering took place during a meeting of the Lutheran-Anglican-Moravian (LAM) Commission, which helps nurture and strengthen the relationship among our three churches.

Together, we spoke about the blessings and challenges we face as churches today. We explored how we might support one another through sharing resources. And we prayed together – for each other, for our churches, for the world, and for The Church.

We were grateful for the chance to participate in the work of the LAM Commission as it focused on opportunities for deeper cooperation in three areas: full communion and Indigenous church relationships, local networking and ministry sharing, and diakonia and the diaconate. We saw how each of these broad conversations could inspire relationships and engagement at local and regional levels.

The meeting also included praying the Liturgy for Christian Unity at New Dawn Moravian Church, where we were warmly hosted by the congregation. These words might summarize our time together: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.” (1 John 3:2 NRSVUE)

We gratefully celebrate full communion among our three churches, and we warmly encourage our members to do the same at the local level. We are confident that friendship, trust, discernment and walking together at the local level will lead to ecumenical initiatives, cooperation and ministries. God calls us to faithfully be the church together in this time and in our context. Where this will lead has yet to be revealed, but together, as children of God, we will find God’s path for us.

These words from the Moravian Liturgy for Christian Unity express our prayer for our churches:

Show us that we are part of the one and only body of Jesus Christ, unified by faith, scattered for witness and service. Lead us to appreciate the richness of our diversity and your creative power at work in our various traditions and customs. Make us all one with you by the inspiration and guidance of your Spirit. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. David E. Bennett
President, Moravian Church, Northern Province

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. ⁴¹Whoever 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, ⁴²and 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. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I 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. ¹⁶You 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. ¹⁷I 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.” ¹⁶A 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.” ¹⁷He 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. ¹⁸Very 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. ³⁴Your 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. ³⁵Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶But 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, ²and 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.” ³He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then 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.”