wfn.org | LWF General Secretary offers highlights of federation work

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

LWF COUNCIL
Press Release No. 04/98

LWF General Secretary offers highlights of federation work
Report surveys federation since Hong Kong Assembly

GENEVA, 11 June 1998 (lwi) - In a day-long report to the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) Council at its meeting here 8-17 June, LWF General
Secretary Ishmael Noko highlighted a number of developments since last
summer s Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong, China. Among the items he noted in
his address and a press conference later, in a 78-page written report and
in reports from unit directors were:

+    The excellent response of member churches to the Joint Declaration
with the Roman Catholic Church on justification. To date, 86 of the 124
member churches have responded--92 percent favorably.

+    The visit of LWF President Christian Krause to member churches in
Latin America and Central America (where Lutherans are a minority church
living beside a Catholic majority) at precisely the time when the churches
were asked to discuss the Joint Declaration.

+    The federation as a whole finished 1997 without a deficit. And one
project that had created financial concern at the Hong Kong Assembly--the
Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem--is on track to finish 1998 without
an operational deficit, something it has not done since the 1980s.

+    With 1998 being the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and the human rights resolutions passed at the last assembly,
the LWF is productively involved in human rights work in a variety of
international forums. The federation is also continuing its work promoting
peace in such countries as the Middle East, Colombia, Nigeria, Guatemala,
Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana and Liberia.

Following the report LWF Council members raised such issues as the LWF s
vision regarding an international criminal court, the importance of a study
on worship and culture, how the LWF fits into the broader ecumenical
movement and the need for work on the role of churches in developing
democracies.

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/