wfn.org | World Council of Churches Assembly Inspires U.S. Lutherans

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 21, 1999

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ASSEMBLY INSPIRES U.S. LUTHERANS
99-02-07-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA)   The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA)
nine delegates to the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches
(WCC) Dec. 4-13 returned from Harare, Zimbabwe, with a sense that the WCC
will have a significant future.  Two ELCA delegates were elected to serve
on the WCC's Central Committee until the next assembly in seven years.
     Four thousand international representatives and visitors met in
southern Africa to set policy goals for the WCC and to provide a
multicultural celebration of the Christian faith.
     "As we went into this assembly there certainly was a fear that this
could be the last assembly," said Kathy Magnus, associate director for
international personnel in the ELCA Division for Global Mission and
elected member of WCC Central Committee.  After long days of negotiations
and consultations, it was apparent that the 339 member churches would
continue working together in the WCC, she said.
     "There will have to be some changes made to go about doing our
business," said Magnus.  "The outcome was, for me, very positive in that
there was a service of re-commitment.  We did commit to continue to work
together toward unity.  This is our calling.  This is what is expected of
us as children of God."
     Magnus served as vice president of the ELCA from 1991 to 1997.  As
vice president, the church's top lay volunteer position, Magnus chaired
the ELCA Church Council.  She has already served three years on the WCC
Central Committee.
     Arthur Norman, Houston, was elected to the Central Committee.  At
24, he said he will have spent almost a quarter of his life in that office
before the next WCC assembly.
     "The ELCA has a strong commitment for youth involved in the church,"
said Norman.  "It was reassuring to see that all the member churches of
the WCC are equally committed to youth and young adult involvement in the
ongoing work and direction-setting of the church."  He said about 22 of
the Central Committee's 150 members are young adults.
     A member of Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Houston, Norman was
treasurer of the ELCA's Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod's Lutheran Youth
Organization when elected chair of the ELCA Council of Synod Lutheran
Youth Organization Presidents.  He also served as a youth advisor to the
ELCA Church Council.
     Norman received a master's degree last year from the University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.  He is a chemical engineer in the
environmental control group treating waste water before it is discharged
from the E.I. du Pont de Nemours agricultural products division in
LaPorte, Texas.
     The WCC assembly "gave me an opportunity to experience the true
essence of ecumenism   the ecumenism that Jesus actually prayed for," said
Norman.  "It made me realize that the movement toward visible Christian
unity can be difficult at times -- trying to get so many different people,
so many different denominations involved in this international ecumenical
organization -- but the journey is well worth it."
     "Drums, trumpets, choirs, hymns, video clips, South African
President Nelson Mandela, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, and a huge
hall filled to overflowing," Magnus listed her memories of the WCC
assembly.  "What a thrill it was to be present in the Great Hall at the
University of Zimbabwe for the Journey to Jubilee Celebration on Dec. 13."
     The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, secretary of the ELCA; the Rev. H. George
Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA; Liza Canino, Bayamon, Puerto Rico;
the Rev. Andrea F. DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South Dakota Synod;
the Rev. Jan O. Flaaten, Trinity Lutheran Church, Phoenix; the Rev. Robert
L. Isaksen, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod; and the Rev. Daniel F.
Martensen, director of the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs were the
ELCA's other delegates to the WCC assembly.
     "John L. Peterson of our ELCA churchwide staff was producer
extraordinaire," said Magnus.  "His creativity, flexibility and 'can do'
ability made this an event which will be remembered forever in the history
of the WCC.  How proud he made us."
     Peterson, the ELCA's director for public media ministry, coordinated
the multimedia program at the assembly to celebrate the WCC's 50th
anniversary.
     The WCC assembly elected eight presidents, including the Rev.
Eberhardt Renz, bishop of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in
Wurttemberg, Germany.  From 1994 to 1998 he was a member of the WCC
Central Committee.
     The Rev. Yadessa Daba of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane
Yesus and the Rev. Anders Gadegaard of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Denmark are Lutherans the assembly elected to the WCC's 23-member
executive committee.
     Lutherans make up 8.5 percent of the WCC Central Committee. The
Orthodox families of churches have the highest representation, with 24.6
percent.  Reformed churches have 22 percent, Methodists and Anglicans have
10 percent each.
     Two Lutheran churches became WCC members at the assembly:  The
Christian Protestant Angkola Church of Indonesia has 28,000 members,
joined the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 1977 and has been an
associate member of the WCC since 1991; and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Congo has 136,000 members in 82 parishes and joined the LWF in
1986.
     The assembly adopted a total of eight new member churches, six from
Africa and two from Asia.  The WCC now has a membership of 339 Protestant,
Orthodox and Anglican churches, bringing together an estimated 500 million
believers.
     A fellowship of churches in more than 100 countries in all
continents from virtually all Christian traditions.  The Roman Catholic
Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC.
     The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 
Its Geneva-based staff is headed by General Secretary Konrad Raiser from
the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Germany.

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