On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and in preparation for Pentecost Sunday, the Lutheran World Federation and the Orthodox Church are issuing a Common Statement on the Holy Spirit, the Church, and the World.
The statement was prepared by the Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue between The Lutheran World Federation and the Orthodox Church. It offers a shared reflection on the Spirit’s role in creation, liturgy, and the mission of the Church in today’s world and follows on the significant Joint Statement on the ‘Filioque’.
The statement opens with an affirmation of the Holy Spirit’s life-giving presence in creation and redemption, calling for a renewed relationship between humanity and the natural world. It underscores the Spirit’s empowering role in proclaiming the Gospel and sustaining the Church’s witness through Word and Sacrament.
Together, Lutherans and Orthodox affirm, that “the Holy Spirit continually opens ways of reconciliation within the Church and in the world,” and that each celebration of the liturgy is a participation in Pentecost.
The common statement concludes by encouraging deeper Trinitarian reflection and calling for further theological and liturgical engagement with themes of creation and renewal. It also supports efforts to establish a common ecumenical Feast of Creation.
COMMON STATEMENT ON THE HOLY SPIRIT,
THE CHURCH, AND THE WORLD
The Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue
Between the Lutheran World Federation and the Orthodox Church
Introduction
I. The Holy Spirit in Creation
1. In the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, Lutherans and Orthodox affirm the faith that God is the Creator of the universe. In the creation, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Gen. 1:2). The Creed states that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and the Giver of Life. In the words of Ps 143 (142):10 we pray to God: “Let your good spirit lead me”. Human life and the existence of the world are God’s gifts and we are dependent on God at every moment of our life. There is a close connection between the life created by God and God’s firm will to sustain and redeem creation.
2. The action of the Triune God upon creation proceeds from the Father through the Son and is perfected in the Holy Spirit. The Father is the preliminary cause of being, the Son, the Word, is the creative cause, who brings all beings into existence and the Holy Spirit is the perfecting cause. “Perfecting” encompasses the Holy Spirit’s task of giving life and sanctifying Creation. The kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).
3. God created the world, and human beings to enjoy creation and live in communion with God. In this communion, humans exercise the priestly vocation of work and caretaking (Gen 2:15). With the Fall, humanity’s participation in God’s loving and life-giving action is broken. God’s creatures are limited in two respects. First, as created we are finite and mutable. Second, while created by God, we struggle between belief and unbelief, perfection and sinful temptation.
4. The fallen world needs the healing presence of the Holy Spirit. The world’s existence depends on the Holy Spirit, and, as St. Paul says (Rom 8:19), “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God”. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Rom 8:14). The perfecting activity of the Holy Spirit gives meaning for the life of the world. The Holy Spirit sustains and renews the life of the world so that the world can communicate with God as it did before the Fall and even beyond it. The Holy Spirit illuminates and inflames hearts so that the human beings grasp and accept the Word of God, cling to it and persevere in it.
5. If human beings do not treat their environment with love and justice, the environment suffers. St. Paul writes how the creation was subjected to futility but he also speaks of hope that the creation itself will be set free of its bondage and decay (Rom 8:20-21). The Spirit given at Pentecost is a missionary Spirit, leading people to repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). In this manner, the Spirit of God looks forward to the freedom and glory of the children of God (Rom 8:21).
6. In today’s world, the connection between human beings and the natural environment has been critically endangered through human greed. This connection needs radical renewal, restoring the harmony of faith and love and anticipating its eschatological perfection in the Holy Spirit. Human beings have importance for the destiny of the natural world. This importance is based on their renewal, received from the Holy Spirit in salvation and manifested in love. The self-giving love of God promotes such mutual neighborly love which also extends towards the natural environment.
7. In the framework of this love, the human pursuit of knowledge can foster communion, communication and involvement for the benefit of the whole creation. While we affirm all honest pursuit of knowledge and neighborly love, we also hold to the faith that expects the final renewal of God’s creation, a new communion with God. When we affirm creation in the Creed, we also affirm the human pursuit of knowledge of the natural world, contributing to the world’s comprehensive healing and renewal.
8. The Creed also speaks of God’s redemptive work beyond its soteriological impact on human beings. That is especially apparent in the line “by whom all things were made”, which indicates the triune God’s involvement in all creation. Orthodox and Lutherans can speak of the Holy Spirit as working in the world in ways that are more comprehensive than the particular salvation of humankind, as the Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit says: “O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who art in all places and fillest all things; treasury of good things and Giver of life.” This prayer also encourages humankind to treat the created world not merely as a means to their own ends, but ultimately as something made and hallowed by God.
II. The Holy Spirit in the Economy of Salvation and the Proclamation of the Gospel
1. The Holy Spirit is active in the whole economy of salvation of the triune God. The Spirit participated in creation (Gen 1:2) and continues to sustain all things that exist. Before the incarnation the Spirit was especially active in God’s communication with his people. In the Creed we confess that the Spirit “spoke by the prophets.” Jesus highlights the activity of the Spirit speaking through the Scriptures: “David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared” (Mk 12:36). Peter and the other disciples emphasize that the Scriptures were spoken by the Holy Spirit: “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David” (Acts 1:16). And: “Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:25).
2. Jesus also tells his disciples that they can expect the Holy Spirit to continue to speak through them: “Do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11). “But the Helper [Comforter], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26).
3. We confess together in the Creed that our Lord Jesus Christ “was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.” This echoes the language of the angel spoken to Mary in the gospel of Luke: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Through the Holy Spirit, we are able to believe in Christ and accept His gifts for us. These include forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, salvation, and eternal life.
4. Lutherans and Orthodox describe this economy of salvation in our Sigtuna statement (1998, §3) as follows: “We receive the grace of Christ in the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit no one can believe in Christ (cf. I Cor 12:3). The Holy Spirit, whom Christ sends from the Father, forms us in the divine likeness. The Holy Spirit calls human beings to faith in Christ through the Gospel in the Church, frees them from sin and death in Holy Baptism, enlightens them and bestows His gifts upon them. He sanctifies and sustains the baptized in true faith; He nourishes them by the flesh and blood of the Lord (cf. John 6:56) in the communion (koinonia) of Christ’s Body (cf. I Cor 10:16-17). He thus leads them through many depths “from glory to glory” (II Cor 3:18).”
5. The Holy Spirit’s work is ordinarily seen in the Church through the proclamation of the word and in the administration of the sacraments. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his disciples specifically to empower them for the proclamation of the gospel. As He said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This promise was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them in a new way on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). In his sermon on that day, Peter calls his hearers: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). The Holy Spirit continued to empower the people of God for the proclamation of the gospel, “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
III. The Holy Spirit in the World
1. The Holy Spirit has been active in Creation from its very beginning, imbuing the entire created world with divine presence and sustenance. If God removes His Spirit from creation, everything that exists perishes, but when He is sent, all are revived (Ps. 104(105):29-30).
2. The Holy Spirit’s presence in the world is made manifest in numerous ways. The New Testament, especially in the Book of Acts, describes the Spirit becoming visible particularly in the process of establishing the church and proclaiming the gospel to those who do not yet believe. The disciples and other believers are instruments of the Spirit’s work in the world. In his final words before his ascension, Jesus tells his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) That promise is then fulfilled at Pentecost. In these cases, the Holy Spirit empowers Christ’s followers not simply for their own sake but to take Christ’s redemptive work out into the world and indeed to the end of the earth.
3. While the New Testament ordinarily describes the Holy Spirit’s salvific work as mediated by the followers of Christ, there are other instances in which God acts in extraordinary and immediate ways to lead people to Christ. These are exemplified by Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. While the Holy Spirit is not mentioned by name in that account, it reminds us that the Spirit may interact with people in extraordinary ways, touching them immediately and without apparent mediation of the church (1 Cor. 12:3). “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8-9).
4. The Holy Spirit also acts in ways that are not specifically salvific but may nonetheless be profoundly impactful for persons and for the world. Following John of Damascus, we may say that the Holy Spirit is undividedly shared “among those divided.” In such instances, the Spirit acts in the world in multiple ways, creating, sustaining, purifying, illuminating and divinizing. These ways remain distinct from one another. For example, if they acted the same, then everyone and everything would participate in the Holy Spirit’s divinizing work, which effects theosis (deification) or “sanctification in the body of Christ who is himself present in the faith of the believers” (Sigtuna 1998, 6.) Although not everyone participates in the Spirit’s divinizing work, the Spirit works in many ways that are edifying to individuals, build community, and enrich and sustain the world.
5. Orthodox and Lutherans view the Holy Spirit’s salvific work as mediated by the proclamation of the word and the administration of the sacraments. When we consider the broader aspects of the Spirit’s activity, we may take into account a broader range of media by which that work is made manifest. Christians of many traditions have made use of blessings, exorcisms, blessed objects such as holy water, candles, anointing oils, etc. when invoking the Holy Spirit. Christians have also referred to the possible presence of the Holy Spirit in visions, dreams, and miraculous occurrences such as healings. Such phenomena often follow biblical precedents, but Lutherans and Orthodox agree that they require caution and rigorous discernment to ensure that these occurrences further the Holy Spirit’s work of building Christian community.
6. The Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in Creation also involves conflict with evil spirits, including those described as demonic. These spirits may mimic the Holy Spirit’s actions and deceive even sincere believers. Because their effects may be destructive and detrimental to God’s designs for the world, all spiritual phenomena require discernment. We may do so in the confidence that, as the Spirit of the Triune God, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to subjugate demons, and destroy evil for the sake of the world’s salvation.
IV. The Holy Spirit, the Liturgy, and the Church
1. Orthodox and Lutherans affirm together the central role of the Holy Spirit in the life, witness and mission of the Church. Since the beginning, in the act of creation, the Triune God established communion with angels and human beings.
2. After the Fall, and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God reconciled humanity to himself and sent the Holy Spirit to continue the work of reconciliation, in and through the Church, making all things new (cf. Rev 21:5).
3. The Holy Spirit preserves the new creation in Christ in the Church. Each one of us becomes a member of the Church through the baptismal service, in which we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit transforms the lives of the baptized through the forgiveness of sins, breaks down all obstacles and barriers, and unites all in love. The Holy Spirit continually opens ways of reconciliation within the Church and in the world. The Spirit is not given once and for all in an unrepeatable experience. Although the Spirit is always in and with the Church, its members enjoy a fresh “Pentecostal” experience of the Spirit every time the Liturgy is celebrated. Renewal through the Holy Spirit is a life-long experience.
4. Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Church is built up, strengthened, nurtured. Through these gifts, the Church, as the body of Christ and the communion of saints, witnesses to God’s immeasurable goodness and serves the neighbor in need, seeking justice and peace. In doing this, Christians experience the “Liturgy after the Liturgy” in all dimensions of their lives.
5. The presence and action of the Holy Spirit is central to the Liturgy. All worship takes place in and through the Holy Spirit, who inspires thanksgiving, confession, preaching, praise, and prayer. These services are a continual “worship” made possible by the Holy Spirit.
6. The eucharistic epiclesis (invocation of the Holy Spirit) is an important part of the anaphora and normally follows the anamnesis and Words of Institution. It was a universal eucharistic prayer in the Eastern Church, but was absent in the Western rite until recently. It has now been rediscovered by many Lutheran churches. Along with the Words of Institution, it is an integral part of the Eucharist, in which the community acknowledges its dependence on God’s presence and action, and the officiant calls upon the Holy Spirit to transform the elements and to sanctify the community (Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission in Bratislava 2006, §4). The placement of the epiclesis after the Words of Institution underscores that it is the Spirit and not the priest or ordained minister who consecrates the elements. Through the Holy Spirit, the bread and the wine become the Body and the Blood of Christ in the Eucharistic celebration, and “the changes that take place in the Eucharist are accomplished by the Holy Spirit” (Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission in Bratislava 2006, §5). The epiclesis also directs the community outward in the confidence of reconciliation, assured of the Spirit’s continual presence.
7. Orthodox and Lutherans both understand the sacrament of the Eucharist as the fundamental part of the Liturgy that requires the presence and participation of the community gathered by the Holy Spirit. This participation in thanksgiving, which presupposes and demands our repentance, exercises faith and transforms the lives of the baptized in God’s promise, in the reconciled community, and for the neighbor.
8. We understand that through the action of the Holy Spirit the local church is bound together in union with the church spread throughout the whole world and grows continuously in communion.
V. Epiclesis (Invocation of the Holy Spirit) in the Life of the Church Beyond the Eucharistic Liturgy
1. While the epiclesis is an important part of the eucharistic liturgy, similar invocations of the Holy Spirit permeate the life of the church both within and beyond our liturgies.
2. A particularly meaningful example is a prayer spoken by both clergy and laypeople in the Orthodox tradition addressing the Holy Spirit as follows: “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth who art everywhere and fillest all things. Treasury of blessings and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good one.” This prayer can also be fully affirmed by Lutherans. In many Lutheran churches, Orthodox prayers are today increasingly used as elements of daily spirituality. When Lutherans today employ the liturgical elements of other traditions, they also become better aware of their own spiritual riches.
3. As the eucharistic model illustrates, an epiclesis typically calls upon the Holy Spirit to consecrate and bless material things or people; it is Trinitarian, sanctifies the community, and leads it to participation in divine life and to salvation. Repentance prepares believers for the reception of the Holy Spirit.
4. Common examples of non-eucharistic epicleses in both traditions include baptism, ordination, and chrismation or confirmation. In our dialogue in Durau 2004, Lutherans and Orthodox affirm that the components of baptism include “death with Christ, resurrection with Christ, and sealing with the Holy Spirit”. Both churches hold that the Christian initiation takes place “by water and the Holy Spirit”. In the Orthodox sacrament of holy chrismation, the prayers implore the direct activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the baptized person, granting the “seal of the gift of the holy Spirit.”
5. Lutheran orders of baptism contain multiple epicleses, calling upon the Father, for example, to “pour out your Holy Spirit, the power of your living Word, that those who are washed in the waters of baptism may be given new life. To you be given honor and praise through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 230). While Lutherans do not have a rite of chrismation, they have analogous epicletic prayers in their celebrations of confirmation, calling on the Holy Spirit to seal and transform the confirmand and to empower that person to aid in the work of sanctifying the community.
6. Both Lutherans and Orthodox employ epicletic prayers in the ordination rite. In the Orthodox ordination prayer, it is asked “that the grace of the All-Holy Spirit may come upon” the ordinand. The ordaining bishop also prays to the Lord to fill the new priest “with the gift of your Holy Spirit”. Many Lutheran orders of ordination include similar prayers, such as: “Eternal God, through your Son, Jesus Christ, pour out your Holy Spirit upon [name] and fill [name] with the gifts of grace for the ministry of word and sacrament” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship).
7. Because the Holy Spirit is intimately involved in the Incarnation, the Spirit breathes sustaining life into the material world and sanctifies all aspects of Creation. Lutheran and Orthodox believers invoke the Holy Spirit for such blessings of their homes, their crops, their bodily health, and their communal life, in many cases, including some Lutheran churches, using blessed water in conjunction with their prayers.
Recommendations:
1. Because the epiclesis emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s essential role in consecrating the eucharistic elements, in sanctifying the eucharistic community and in drawing the participants into the divine life, our commission urges Lutheran churches who have not instated the epiclesis in their eucharistic liturgies to do so, and those who have made the epiclesis optional to begin using it more regularly.
2. Because it is important for the believers to learn about and understand more clearly the Holy Spirit’s role in the eucharist, our commission calls upon those Orthodox churches who speak the epiclesis silently to consider saying it audibly for the edification of the laity.
3. In the light of the above statements, our churches and teachers may also consider how a Eucharistic and epicletic Ecclesiology can be developed that would facilitate understanding between Lutherans and Orthodox.
4. Feast of Creation: As world communions consider establishing an ecumenically celebrated Feast of Creation, we call on our churches to deepen the connection between creation and our Trinitarian faith.
5. The Lutheran-Orthodox International Joint Commission recommends that all Lutheran churches who do not already do so begin using translations of the Nicene Creed based upon the original Greek wording, without the filioque.
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