wfn.org | Joint meeting of Mecklenburg and Bavarian church leadership

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

A church of hope against resignation

NUREMBERG, Germany/GENEVA, 4 March 1999 (lwi)   "We want to be a
church of hope against resignation," is how Bishop Hermann Beste
described some of the challenges facing the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Mecklenburg (ELCM) during the church's annual joint meeting
with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELCB) mid-February.

The joint meeting in Germany's southern city of Nuremberg was
attended by over 20 members of the churches' respective councils and
synods including Bavaria's Bishop Hermann D. von Loewenich.

"In the face of an unemployment rate of up to 40 percent, many people
fall into resignation. For this reason the church's main task is to
"encourage people to take up political responsibility in the
awareness that they are valuable and can make a difference," the
Mecklenburg bishop said.

The two churches have been in partnership since the end of the Second
World War.  Nearly 200 Mecklenburg congregations are currently in
partnership with a Bavarian congregation.
The ELCB has over 2.7 million members, making it the second largest
of the LWF member churches in Germany.

Strategically situated next to the former East Germany, the 241,000-
member ELCM
is faced with unique tasks. For instance, 93 percent of pupils in the
local schools are not baptized, yet between 50 to 60 percent of
students participate in religious instruction where it is offered.

The meeting ended with a worship service during which Bishop Medardo
E. Gomez Soto from El Salvador and the president of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF), Bishop Christian Krause, participated. In his
sermon Bishop Gomez talked about the bond of hope linking the poor
and rich countries of this earth.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/