On 19 September this year in York, Great Britain, at the close of the meeting of the heads of the Porvoo Communion churches, Elmārs Rozītis, Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Abroad (LELBĀL), and Martin Lind, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, signed the Porvoo Declaration concerning the membership of the congregations they lead in the Porvoo Communion.
This declaration will become relevant for Latvia in just a few weeks, when Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga, bishop emeritus of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, moves to Latvia. Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga is also a LELBĀL pastor, and from 30 October this year she will begin to carry out the duties of pastor of the Anglican Church of the Holy Saviour congregation in Riga, duties which until now have been diligently performed for 18 years by pastor and University of Latvia Faculty of Theology lecturer Juris Cālītis.
The Porvoo Communion currently comprises 15 full Anglican and Lutheran member congregations, with a few exceptions mainly from Northern European countries. These congregations are:
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania, the Church of Norway, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Sweden, the Anglican Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Church of Ireland, the Church of Iceland, the Church in Wales, the Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church in Portugal (a church within the Anglican communion), the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church, the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Abroad, which has just joined in 2014, and the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia participates in the Porvoo Communion with observer status, without the right to sign.
The Porvoo Communion was founded in 1992 with the founding document of the Porvoo Common Statement and provides for full communion among the member churches, including the Eucharist. The declaration was signed in the Finnish town of Järvenpää, but the Porvoo Communion took its name in honour of the Finnish town of Porvoo, where the solemn worship service of the Common Statement with a joint Holy Communion took place. Full communion in the cooperation of the member congregations also means mutual recognition of clergy and the sharing of premises.
Article prepared by Aļesja Lavrinoviča
Proofreader Mag. Theol. Milda Klampe
This report was prepared using the following sources:
Photo: John Sentanu, The Archbishop of York (several pictures of the signing of the declaration can be viewed here)
Rozītis, Elmārs Ernsts “Mutual recognition for common work”, published 03.10.2014. (viewed 10.10.2014) http://www.lelba.org/lv/?timeZone=Europe/Berlin
The Anglican Church of the Holy Saviour congregation in Riga http://www.anglicanriga.lv/index_draudze_latv.html
Hamid, David (bishop) “Two new Churches enter the Porvoo Communion”, published 08.10.2014. (viewed 10.10.2014)
The Porvoo Communion http://www.porvoocommunion.org/porvoo_communion/statement/the-statement-in-english/