The authors are clear that there is still much work to be done before altar and pulpit fellowship between the two sides is possible. Nevertheless, they have found the discussions promising enough to publicly declare their prayer that, "in the time and manner of His choosing, our Lord would grant each side in our conversations to acknowledge our 'first cousin' to be in fact a true sister church, with the result that we would welcome each other wholeheartedly to our respective altars and enjoy the blessed situation in which our clergy and people would be interchangeable with each other as we stand under the grace of God and work for His kingdom."

In the meantime, they encourage the three church bodies to "consider the ways in which we can cooperate and come together in ways that fall short of full communion but do allow the greatest measure of cooperation while maintaining full theological integrity."

The leaders of the three churches welcomed the report warmly, reflecting on the growing relationship between confessional Anglicans and Lutherans.

"In a time when so many churches are departing from the teachings of the Bible, it has been refreshing to see the stand for scriptural truth that is being made by the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod and Lutheran Church--Canada," said the Most Rev. Foley Beach, archbishop of the ACNA. "We agree on the essentials of the Faith, and share a common desire to evangelize North America with the gospel of Jesus Christ."

All three leaders were present for the most recent round of dialogue, held Feb. 8-9, in St. Louis. A major focus of the meeting was completing the interim report.

LIBERALS COALESCE

On the other side of the ecclesiastical fence, liberal denominations are watching as their market share shrinks with aging congregations, fleeing church members, closing churches, fewer full time pastors and priests and the rise of the Nones.

The rush to find denominational partners to prop up failing denominations has become so acute, that if The Episcopal Church did not ally itself with other denominations, it would disappear even faster than it is. The present alliances may well be viewed as a temporary stay of execution.

The Episcopal Church has been a leader in decline. In 1966, the TEC had 3,647,297 members. By 2013, the membership was 1,866,758, a decline of 49 percent. Average Sunday attendance figures are about one third of membership.

(Those numbers should be even lower, though, since those figures by the Episcopal Church include breakaway churches trying to leave the denomination.)

In 1987, the ECLA had 5,288,230 members. In 2013, the membership was 3,863,133, a decline of 27 percent.

In 2001, The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America entered into a concordat, becoming full Communion Partners with each other. A document "Called to Common Mission," was the culmination of thirty years of dialogue. It was not a merger, but each accepted full communion while retaining their autonomy and structures. They agreed to work together for joint mission and witness in the world. In accord with procedures established in "Called to Common Mission," clergy and laity may move freely between the two churches.

(Note: The ELCA was formally constituted in 1988, as a merger of the Lutheran Church in America, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the American Lutheran Church.)

The Episcopal Church then moved to enter into full communion with The Moravian Church - Northern and Southern Provinces. Worldwide, the Moravian Church has over 900,000 members in 19 different provinces. The Moravian Church -- properly known as the Unitas Fratrum -- dates back to 1457.

Anglicans and Moravians have been in dialogue, on and off, for more than 250 years, both in the US and in England. The Moravian-Episcopal dialogue met from 1999-2008 and submitted a proposal for full communion, "Finding Our Delight in the Lord," to both churches. The 2009, General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved this proposal, and in 2010, the Synods of the Moravian Church voted to enter into full communion.

In 2006, the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church entered a relationship of Interim Eucharistic Sharing through which churches grow together by sharing worship while continuing to study remaining issues. The theological dialogue group continues to meet, focusing on how the two churches might reach agreement on full communion, which would allow for interchangeability of ministries. The 2012 UMC General Conference voted to be in full communion with the Episcopal Church. The United Methodist Council of Bishops approved interim agreements for sharing the Eucharist with the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

The Episcopal Church entered into full communion with the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, on the basis of the Bonn Agreement in 1934. The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht consisted of several national churches in Europe, located in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland, who could not accept the definition of papal infallibility of the first Vatican Council in 1870. Included in this full communion arrangement was the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC), which was a member of the Union of Utrecht until 2003. The PNCC terminated its relationship of full communion with the Episcopal Church in 1978 over women's ordination.

The Mar Thoma Church of India is one of several Christian churches in India tracing its ancestry back to the apostle Thomas. It currently has over a million members in India, and an increasing presence in North America. The Mar Thoma Church has been in full communion with the Episcopal Church since 1979, and is in full communion with other provinces of the Anglican Communion.

The Philippine Independent Church was founded in 1902, and has over five million members. It also has a diocese in the United States to minister to Filipinos in this country. In 1961, the Philippine Independent Church (also known as the Iglesia Filipina Independiente) and the Episcopal Church entered into a relationship of full communion. A concordat council meets annually to oversee the relationship.

The Great churches of the East and West, like the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, have increasingly separated themselves from any talk of union or unity with TEC despite, 40 years of ARCIC talks.

The sad reality is that all these denominations are in decline with TEC, barely two generations away from extinction. More than 60% of The Episcopal Church is made up of women over 60 and there is no generation of millennials coming behind to fill the gap. TEC's fortunes are in decline, with nearly half of all parishes without a full time paid priest.

If there is any good to come out of the realignment, it is the realization that truth and falsity cannot indefinitely coexist together, and while the "wheat and tares" will exist till the end of time, idolatry is specifically counselled against by the Apostle Paul (II Cor.6), and we are called to "come out from among them and separate ourselves" from such persons.

God is not mocked; the old mainline denominations are reaping what they have sown and, in sowing to the wind, they are reaping the whirlwind.

END