wfn.org | Joint Declaration affirmed by 91 percent of responding LWF churches

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF COUNCIL
Press Release No. 07/98

Joint Declaration affirmed by 91 percent of LWF member churches responding

GENEVA, 16 June 1998 (lwi) - When the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Council unanimously approved the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification" here today, it had heard from 89 of its 124 member churches.

Of those responding 80 answered "yes" to the declaration and five said
"no." Four answers seemed difficult to interpret, according to the
Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France, which analyzed the
responses. Of those four one seemed to be a "yes" and three a "no."

The "yes" answers came from 91 percent of the churches responding, which
represent 54.7 million Lutherans (95 percent of the Lutherans in LWF member
churches).

Though the Council approved the resolution on the "Joint Declaration"
unanimously and without abstentions, it included concern for those churches
who had said no or who have not yet responded:

"In light of the comments and concerns expressed by the churches in their
responses, the need for further common investigation [should] be
emphasized, both of the consequences of this doctrine for specific areas of
teaching and practice in the church, and also of the controverted topics
within the doctrine of justification that arose during the reception
process."

The LWF General Secretary was asked to present to next year s Council
meeting a plan of how to deal with the controversial issues that came up
during the churches  discussion of the "Joint Declaration." It asked that
the plan be drawn up for action both "within the LWF and together with the
Roman Catholic Church."

Of the Lutheran churches who forwarded to the LWF their response to the
"Joint Declaration," 19 were from Africa, 23 from Asia, 33 from Europe, 11
from Latin America and three from North America.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of Lutheran
churches. Founded in Lund, Sweden, in 1947, the LWF now has 124 member
churches in 69 countries representing over 57 million of the world s 61
million Lutherans. The LWF headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/