On its face, the proposed agreement seems benign. After all, we all think the disunity of the Protestant church is a scandal that should be rectified as soon as possible. But some Lutherans are saying the Lutheran/Episcopal Concordant will be costly for Lutherans while the Episcopalians will go home with all the favors bestowed upon them.

The concordant will be voted on this July and August, first by the Episcopalians and then by the Lutherans. Is it just a coincidence that both of those conventions are being held in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love?

I guarantee there won't be much brotherly love at the Lutheran gathering. Already Lutherans are gathering in small groups to listen to their bishops or other experts talk about the pros and cons of this unique agreement.

In these debates, a fellow doesn't know whom to believe. So I read the document, which is dry as a dog bone, and I came away with very little that disturbed me. Then I remembered that the Rev. Paul Berge, a New Testament scholar at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., had been a member of the committee that wrote the initial draft of the concordant. He and one other member of the committee had written a dissenting report.

Berge and I got together in his campus office to talk about what Lutherans and Episcopalians can agree on and what they can't. The bottom line, Berge says, is that Episcopalians and Lutherans have a different understanding of church and ministry.

"When Lutherans talk about ministry, it is for the sole purpose of God's saving work," Berge said. "Ministry is the work of the Holy Spirit through word and sacrament. When Episcopalians talk about ministry, it's about church structure."

Berge is also troubled by the three levels of ministry in the Episcopal Church; bishop, priest and deacon.

"When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed in 1988, they decided they would study the ministry," Berge says. "So they spent two years and $2 million and they decided to propose three levels of ministry: bishop, pastor and deacon. They brought it to the church-wide assembly and the delegates voted it down by 80 percent. They were saying, 'We want to stay with one level of ministry, pastor only.' "

You may wonder why this is important to Lutherans. But it is part of a historical design. Lutheran bishops have never had much power. They have to be good persuaders as they seek to help congregations and pastors who may be wading in the deep water. The Lutheran church looks upon them as pastors to the pastors.

Episcopal bishops, on the other hand, have a good deal more power. For instance, an Episcopal bishop, Berge says, is believed to have the power to make Christ present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Lutheran bishops have never been given that power and, I suspect, never will.

The binding votes taken at this summer's gatherings, Berge says, also would make bishops the only ones able to ordain and confirm. There are three historic episcopates that hold to that view: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican.

"We are being asked to join the Anglican episcopate," Berge says.

Someone, he hopes, will raise a motion to table the proposal, which would prevent a vote. That would save the church a lot of heat but, of course, it would not settle the matter, and every time the ELCA has a convention someone will want to take it off the table for a vote.

Berge wants Christianity to be united as much as anyone else in the church.

However, "Unity is not something we create," Berge says. "It's something that is given as a gift. and it is created by Jesus Christ."

Clark D. MorphewMay 17, 1997