07.04.2025
ALICUM – What is it? Who is it?
Archbishop Michael Jackson outlines the work of the new Anglican Lutheran body following its recent meeting in Jordan.
ALICUM is the Anglican Lutheran International Commission on Unity and Mission. It is a new body which seeks to take the work done by a wide range of International Commissions, most recently ALIC, The Anglican Lutheran Commission, into the everyday life of Anglican and Lutheran Churches through discipleship and liturgy shared in every way possible. The theological agreements have created a safe space for the expression of the communion that already exists in Christ to manifest itself in the life of the churches as they live out the Gospel in their societies. ALICUM therefore is an urgent call to Anglican and Lutheran churches to public theology, if they can heed the call.
Twelve pairs of bishops and others exercizing episcope in their churches were invited to spend a week together in Amman, Jordan sharing experience and expertise and also pushing out the boat in terms of what is possible both in terms of prayerful adventure and existing experience. This happened during the period March 28 to April 3 2025. These twelve pairs (ten of whom were able to be present) were representative of long–standing Anglican and Lutheran engagement and rapport across the Christian world. The Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough, Ireland The Most Reverend Dr Michael Jackson (Anglican) and the Bishop of Tampere, Finland The Right Reverend Dr Matti Repo (Lutheran) were invited as co–chairs of Porvoo as one such pair.
We began by sharing our work and our hopes. We moved on to worship with both the Anglican and the Lutheran congregations in Amman (The Church of the Redeemer and The Church of the Good Shepherd respectively) on a Sunday which was enriched by personal engagement with Christians in The Land of The Holy One and lectures on the Ecumenical Agreements to date and an analysis of Baptism in the early and undivided church. We then undertook a pilgrimage of faithfulness and renewal of baptismal vows together at The Baptismal Site on the Jordanian side. We also visited Mount Negbo, associated with Moses, and the ancient city of Madaba. On the penultimate day, we worked on future plans in pairs and shared this with all present, that is members of the other pairs and members of the Anglican and Lutheran steering committee. The final day incorporated work on the Communique and a Service of Commissioning back in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of The Good Shepherd in Amman.
Why, if at all, does any of this matter? The fact that Anglicans and Lutherans could gather in proactive theological friendship like this shows how effective the formal Theological Agreements already are. The fact that a wide range of people in roles of leadership and service from right around the world came together to plot an agreed common pathway for the next three years, trying to advance unity and mission in their context, is a positive expression of the closeness of both the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran World Federation. The relationships of full communion that have sprung up organically between Lutherans and Anglicans in various parts of the world show that the grassroots are challenging the grasstops. The questions surrounding transitivity, already resolved between the American Lutherans and TEC and likewise between the Canadian Lutherans and the Anglican Church of Canada, will be the substantial topic for the Porvoo Primates’ Consultation to be held in 2026 in England.
The Most Reverend Dr Michael Jackson April 2025
