The Rev. Carroll Robinson does not consider himself a trail blazer, not in any bold sense.
Maybe ice breaker is a more accurate description, he says.
Whatever Robinson allows, he’s the first Lutheran minister in Rowan County to administer the sacraments at an Episcopal church since the two denominations agreed to share communion, say officials with the governing bodies of both.
Robinson, pastor of Lebanon Lutheran Church in western Rowan County, stood in the pulpit at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Salisbury twice a month from mid-summer until December.
“That’s quite unusual in itself,” Robinson said recently. “The communion thing is a big issue in a lot of denominations, so a Lutheran being able to do that in an Episcopal church or vice versa is rather historic.”
Robinson’s service comes just months after the Episcopal Church of America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America entered into a historic pact. “Called to Common Mission,” as the document is known, allows the churches to worship together, work jointly in ministry and share pastors.
The agreement really formalized what has been happening for a while, said the Rev. George Ryan of the Lutheran church’s N.C. synod, based in Salisbury. Lutherans and Episcopalians jointly formed congregations several years ago in at least three communities where members of each church numbered few.
Those churches have relied on visiting Lutheran ministers and Episcopal priests and vary their worship to the style of whoever presides over a service on a given day, Ryan said. The congregations formed with the blessings and help of both denominations.
“It actually became a pretty good joint venture even before the Call to Common Mission occurred,” Ryan said.
But Ryan confirmed that Robinson is the first Lutheran minister in Rowan — probably the first in the state — to serve for an extended time at an Episcopal church since the agreement took effect Jan. 1.
The Rev. Doug Kearney, another Lutheran minister from Rowan County, is among the first to fill in as a rector, or pastor, at an Episcopal church. Kearney currently leads the congregation of Grace Episcopal in Lexington.
No Episcopal priests have yet served in that role at Lutheran churches in North Carolina, said the Rev. Ted Malone, communications director for the Episcopal Diocese of N.C. and editor of the church’s newspaper.
“The process of exchange is just beginning to happen,” Malone said from the diocese offices in Raleigh. “We’re experimenting and seeing how it’s going to work.”
For the 60 members of St. Matthews Episcopal, however, calling on Robinson was less an experiment than going with a proven entity, explained Mike Trexler, a member of the church’s vestry council.
The Rev. Wendell Phillips, the church’s rector for nine years, retired in May and the members of St. Matthews were having a hard time finding supply priests, or fill-in ministers, to serve the church until they found a new priest.
In a vestry meeting, someone mentioned Robinson’s name.
“Everybody knows him from being around Rowan County,” Trexler said.
Many St. Matthews members know Robinson from his ministerial work — he’s been a pastor in Rowan for more than 25 years, first at Salem Lutheran and then at Lebanon — or from his landscaping business, Trexler said.
“We checked with our bishop and their bishop, and they allowed it to happen,” he said.
Robinson held services at St. Matthews twice a month, on the first and last Sundays. He administered Holy Communion, preached and “did the whole nine yards out of the prayer book,” he said.
He was never really worried about ministering to a congregation of a different denomination, he said, because Lutheran and Episcopal services are very similar. There are a few places where they differ, and he was a little nervous that he would say the right thing but at the wrong time.
“That was a little bit intimidating for me until I got used to it,” he said.
Trexler said Robinson hit most of his marks and when he didn’t, the congregation “just flowed right with what he did,” then picked up the normal order of service.
One thing about Robinson did stand out to Trexler enough that he commented on it to his wife.
“As he was going through a sermon, he was rocking back and forth; that surprised me,” he said. It was just a gentle motion, as if Robinson was “trying to throw something out at you,” but Trexler hadn’t seen much movement out of staid Episcopal priests.
“Some of them can get into a sermon, but I’ve never seen one physically rock back and forth,”he said.
Robinson’s style didn’t drive church members to distraction, though. In fact, his presence drew some folks to services who Trexler hadn’t seen at church in a long time.
“Some of the people even asked him if he wanted to take our church,” Trexler said. “By the end of the time, he was just like one of the regular Joes with us.”
Robinson and other leaders say his service at St. Matthews wouldn’t have been possible without the Called to Common Mission agreement, in which the two denominations recognized the validity of each others’ ministry.
But part of that recognition agreement is causing a stir among Lutherans.
The Episcopal Church holds to the doctrine of the “Historic Episcopate.” Each new bishop must be ordained with the laying on of hands by a bishop who can trace his spiritual heritage in an unbroken line back to Jesus’ original apostles.
Martin Luther, the father of the Lutheran Church, rejected that belief some 500 years ago, and the church has since relied on a faith that God will call whom he chooses into ministry, and that a call from the church will follow.
For Call to Common Mission to take effect, the Lutheran denomination agreed that all new bishops and ministers would be ordained in that succession. Current bishops and ministers are accepted without that requirement.
Numerous Lutherans and churches across the country have formed an organization called WordAlone to call for the rejection of the “Historic Episcopate” part of the agreement. And they have formed an alternate association for Lutheran churches that disagree with the requirement.
“The problem for most folks in WordAlone is that our understanding of the Historic Episcopate means that it adds something to the definition of what it takes to be a church that we don’t agree with,” said the Rev. Ronald Fink, pastor of Haven Lutheran Church in Salisbury.
Haven Lutheran is not a member church of WordAlone. Fink holds an individual membership, he said, because he personally doesn’t believe “any line goes back all the way to the 12 disciples.”
“History says the succession goes back to Peter, but there have been more than one pope in the Catholic Church at times in history and there were arguments about which one had the right to ordain bishops,” Fink said. “There really isn’t a way to say there’s one unbroken line to St. Peter.”
Robinson says he understands there are some Lutherans who vehemently oppose the union with Episcopalians, but he believes a “goodly number” will accept the churches’ agreement.
And he had no reservations about serving his Episcopal brethren, he said.
“I felt good about it,” he said. “Iwas honored, I felt, by being asked by an Episcopal church — my being a Lutheran — to come and supply them with the Lord’s Supper.”
Robinson says he believes the new bond between the churches is, to paraphrase a popular Christian slogan, what Jesus would do, and, in fact, what he told Christians to do.
“We are moving closer to what it seems Christ wants the church to do in his high priestly prayer in John’s Gospel, that we all might be one,” he said. “It’s a step in that direction, a further step.”
Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com
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