wfn.org | ELCA hails the signing of the "Joint Declaration"

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

Lutherans and Catholics have bridged theological divide

CHICAGO, United States of America/GENEVA, 23 October 1999 (lwi) - The
Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in  America (ELCA) and a vice president of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), will be among church representatives from around the
world assembling on 31 October 1999 in Augsburg, Germany, to sign the
"Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," an historic
agreement with the Roman Catholic Church.

In a press statement, Bishop Anderson describes the Joint Declaration as
"a significant milestone in the reconciliation of our two church
traditions. By acknowledging that there is agreement on this crucial
article of the Christian faith, our two churches have bridged a
theological divide that has separated us for nearly 500 years."

Anderson said: "This agreement will have a positive effect on the mood
of conversations between our two communions. I hope that this
theological breakthrough will lead to other agreements in the future."

With the major issue -- over which the two churches "damned" each other
in the 16th century -- taken care of, Lutherans and Roman Catholics are
able to tackle the remaining list of issues, said the Rev. Daniel F.
Martensen, director of the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs. Such
issues include the office of ministry and the authority of the pope.
Roman Catholics and Lutherans are saying "we don't have any
church-dividing difference between us any longer on the teaching of
justification by grace through faith," he added.

Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett, Roman Catholic Diocese of Seattle,
called the declaration "a powerful gift from God." Brunett, chairperson
of the committee for ecumenical and interreligious affairs of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, addressed the ELCA's 1999
Churchwide Assembly last August.

He said: "The deepest significance of our common understanding of the
grace of Christ as central in our lives, in a culture dominated by
competition, by status, by merit and self-reliance, is that what we
receive as a gift we must recognize also comes to us as a common task
and challenge.
.
"What we understand anew we must teach anew and live out together anew.
This is the last stage that opens between us as Lutherans and Catholics.
There are many aspects of our life together in the Church which, over
time, I am confident will be touched and reshaped as a result of the
accord expressed in the Joint Declaration," Brunett added.

Anderson stressed the possibilities of ceremonies and celebrations in
Lutheran and Roman Catholic parishes across the United States. "American
Lutherans especially greet this announcement with enthusiasm, because
the work of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue on the doctrine of
justification, published in 1985, contributed significantly to this
international agreement," he said. Anderson was Lutheran co-chair of the
dialogue at that time. The ELCA has over five million members.

"We encourage local joint celebrations of this agreement between
Lutheran congregations and Roman Catholic parishes, using the Service of
the Word approved for joint Lutheran-Catholic worship or the prayer
offices that are the common inheritance of the whole Church," said a
statement from the Liturgical Conference. The conference, a Roman
Catholic organization when it was founded in 1940, is now an ecumenical
association that works to renew liturgy within the churches.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

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