Lutheran Episcopal Friends

Called to Common Mission

In 2022 the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America celebrated two decades of full communion between our two church bodies. Over the last twenty years we have learned to worship together and developed a deep appreciation for each other’s liturgies and confessions of faith. We have established full recognition of each other’s ordained ministries and the office of bishop. Episcopal priests are serving in ELCA congregations and ELCA pastors are serving in Episcopal parishes.

In 2019 St. Mary’s entered into an agreement with First Lutheran Church in West Barnstable to share a staff position between the two churches. Pastor Russ Norris continues to serve St. Mary’s as Associate Pastor. In the fall of 2022, a small group of Lutherans and Episcopalians gathered to consider what next steps our two churches might take to answer God’s call to common mission. Calling themselves “Lutheran Episcopal Friends”, the group organized two events to help us get to know one another. A Q&A session was held at St. Mary’s entitled “What you’ve always wondered about Lutherans (Episcopalians) and been afraid to ask”, which attracted over 60 participants. The following month a joint “Santa Lucia” Advent service at First Lutheran also drew a large crowd.

In 2023 the two churches opened their Lenten programs to members of both churches. A weekly film series call “Lent Flix” was a very popular and well attended film series following Sunday morning worship. Lutherans also invited members of St. Mary’s to their Wednesday mid-week “Sacred Journey”, which also proved highly successful. As a consequence of these first experiences in shared worship, the church offices at St. Mary’s and First Lutheran now routinely publish each other’s upcoming events. Plans are being made to collaborate on mission programs, especially on issues of food insufficiency and community outreach.

If you would like to learn more about Lutheran Episcopal Friends, and how you can get involved, contact Pastor Russ.