wfn.org | News in brief

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

 ... Evangelical Church of the A.C. in Romania hopes to become financially
independent. The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania
hopes to be "almost financially independent" within five years. According
to Transylvanian Bishop Christoph Klein, the church is seeking to have
previously nationalized property returned to ensure more financial
independence. The budget could be covered, in the long term, by the leasing
and utilization of arable land and forests as well as by the letting of
buildings. The resulting funds would compensate for the reduction in
contributions from the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Currently,
about 40 percent of the church's budget is covered by EKD funds, Klein
said. During the past 10 years, the church has suffered a membership loss
of over 80,000 persons because of the emigration of Transylvanian "Saxons"
to Germany. In 1989, the membership dropped from 115,000 to some 17,000.

 ... Bishop of Gutnius Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea reelected.
Presiding Bishop David P. Piso of the Gutnius Lutheran Church - Papua New
Guinea was reelected to his position for a further period of four years,
July 3, at the 30th Lutheran National Conference. Piso gained 362 of the
votes from the 598 eligible voters. After his election, he said, "I will
continue my mission called by God to build bridges to encourage the growth
of not only Lutherans but Christians throughout the country." Piso was
first elected to head the church in 1982. A member of the LWF Council, he
is on the LWF Standing Committee for International Affairs and Human
Rights.

 ... Churches in Slovak Republic to celebrate Year of Christian Culture in
1999. As the millennium approaches, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox
churches in the Slovak Republic are joining forces to mark 1999 as the Year
of Christian Culture. A formal agreement was scheduled to be signed earlier
this month between the Roman Catholic Church, the Ecumenical Council which
represents the country's non-Catholic minority churches, and the Ministry
of Culture, according to the Ecumenical Council's president, Lutheran
Bishop Julius Filo. Special groups have been set up to organize a series of
events, including church music, theater, sculpture, and literature.

 ... Lutheran church in Brazil has project to establish university. A
Lutheran university is the aim of a project currently being worked on by a
group of educators, President Huberto Kirchheim of the Evangelical Church
of the Lutheran Confession (IECLB) in Brazil announced recently. The IECLB,
which this year proposes putting an emphasis on secondary education,
already has a business administration faculty in Tres Passos, Rio Grande do
Sul, nursing and social communication institutes in Joinville, Santa
Catarina and will open a computer sciences faculty in Curitiba, next year.

 ... LWF publications. The June 1998 issue of WorshipNet features an update
on the Worship and Culture Study, information on the new liturgy book in
Germany (Erneuerte Agende) and a report on Baptism and culture. Regular
features include information on worship from member churches and brief
reviews of new books related to worship and preaching. To receive a copy,
E-mail: rd@lutheranworld.org, or write to the Office for Worship and
Congregational Life, LWF Department for Theology and Studies, P.O. Box
2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland.

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