wfn.org | ELCA Adopts Guidelines on Lutheran-Jewish Relations

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 18, 1998

ELCA ADOPTS GUIDELINES ON LUTHERAN-JEWISH RELATIONS
98-CC2-18-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
now has "suggestions" for fostering Lutheran-Jewish dialogue and
cooperation.  The ELCA Church Council adopted "Guidelines for Lutheran-
Jewish Relations" when it met here Nov. 13-16.
     The 37-member council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as
the legislative authority of the church between meetings of the ELCA's
Churchwide Assembly.  Assemblies are held every other year; the next is
August 16-22, 1999, in Denver.
     The guidelines are an outgrowth of a "Declaration to the Jewish
Community" which the council adopted in 1994.  The declaration repudiated
the anti-Jewish writings of Martin Luther and expressed "our urgent desire
to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish
people."
     "We acknowledged one of the dark pages in our history," the Rev.
Franklin E. Sherman, associate for interfaith relations in the ELCA's
Department for Ecumenical Affairs, told the council.  Now the guidelines
will encourage local conversations to move beyond that point, he said.
     "These guidelines have been issued so that those who desire to
engage in interfaith dialogue might benefit from the experience of those
who have gone before," says the document.  "They are intended to provide
practical assistance as well as the encouragement needed for a rewarding
journey."
     A controversial issue the ELCA's Consultative Panel on Lutheran-
Jewish Relations encountered while drafting the guidelines involved
mentioning the State of Israel, Sherman told the council.  Jewish
counterparts stressed the importance of recognizing the state, while
Lutherans representing Palestinian interests did not want the guidelines
to seem like an endorsement.
     "Lutherans need to understand the depth of Jewish concern for
communal survival, a concern shaped not only by the Holocaust but by
centuries of Christian apathy towards Judaism," say the guidelines.  "Jews
will thus feel strongly about topics such as the security of the State of
Israel, intermarriage and conversion, in which Jewish survival is seen to
be at stake.

["Guidelines for Lutheran-Jewish Relations" will be mailed to ELCA
congregations in the January/February Action Packet.  The 1994
"Declaration to the Jewish Community" is located at
http://www.elca.org/ea/jewish.html on the World Wide Web.  Editors and
reporters only: For a copy of the guidelines, please contact Brenda
Williams, ELCA News & Information, 773-380-2963.]

For information contact:
Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Director (773) 380-2955 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html