The Porvoo Communion

The Porvoo Communion is a fellowship of Anglican and Lutheran churches who celebrate their unity as churches and who share a common sacramental life and ministry through the Porvoo Common Statement (agreed in 1992).

Porvoo (pronounced Pore–voe) is a town in south–eastern Finland where the members of the consultation worshipped on the final weekend of their work.  The Church of Ireland signed the statement in 1995.  The Communion’s Anglican member Churches are the Church of England, Church in Wales, Scottish Episcopal Church, Church of Ireland, the Lusitanian Church in Portugal and the Spanish Episcopal Church.  Its Lutheran member Churches are the Churches of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, the Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Estonia, Finland, Iceland and Lithuania, the Latvian Church Abroad and the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

The Porvoo Common Statement means that member Churches:

• regard baptised members of each other’s Churches as members of their own;
• welcome those ordained as bishops, priests and deacons to minister in accordance with the receiving Churches’ regulations; and
• consult on significant matters of faith and order, life and work.

The statement particularly benefits members of the Church of Ireland who are working and living in the Nordic and Baltic countries and members of Lutheran Churches visiting Ireland.

The Porvoo Communion is co–chaired by the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson (Archbishop of Dublin) and the Rt Revd Dr Matti Repo (Bishop of Tampere).  The Church of Ireland representative on the Porvoo Communion contact group is the Revd Canon Stephen Fielding.

More information is available at www.porvoocommunion.org

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