While the questions might not yield quickly to certainty, one response was recently demonstrated by Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, in his order that abruptly ended a Catholic-Lutheran ecumenical venture that has been underway for nearly 40 years and that was viewed approvingly by three of his predecessors. The archbishop, in a letter to the Spirit of Grace community, described his perceived obligation to "guard the entire liturgical life" of the local church. The action, he said, resulted from his discernment of "the needs of the Catholic faithful of the archdiocese, the key principles governing the sacred liturgy, and how best to promote Christian unity."
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