While the threat of schism looms and journalists fritter over whether the Communion will go this way or that over whom the U.S. church elects and confirms to its Episcopate, well, there’s always Canada. From the Anglican Church of Canada website:
It was an accidental picnic that first got the Anglicans and Lutherans of Carman, Man., together.
Lutheran pastor Jim Halmarson explained how 12 years ago the town double-booked the local park, so members of his congregation had to flip their burgers alongside the Anglicans. The afternoon of forced fellowship started a three-year process of closer relations, from joint worship services to eventually an amalgamated church, Grace St. John’s Anglican / Lutheran.
These unions develop gradually. In June, Canadian Anglicans and Lutherans deepened their Full Communion relationship when their two national meetings voted to allow ministers to hold offices in each other’s denominations.
On the Anglican end, this means that Lutherans can hold offices governed by General Synod, for instance as a member of the triennial General Synod meeting. It may also mean that a Lutheran could hold higher offices within the church.
“It would now be possible for a Lutheran to be elected an Anglican bishop, which would be interesting,” said Alyson Barnett-Cowan, director of Faith, Worship, and Ministry for the Anglican General Synod. In order for this to happen, provinces and dioceses would need to amend their canons, a step that some have already taken.
Rev. Halmarson welcomed the news. “I think it gives us a diversity for discovering leadership at different levels,” he said. He also thinks there’s a “good possibility” that a Lutheran bishop may be elected in an Anglican church (or vice versa) during his lifetime.
The whole thing is here.