wfn.org | LWF President: 'Hope is an incredibly strong potential'

[FRANK.IMHOFF@ecunet.org]

LWF COUNCIL MEETING, TURKU, FINLAND, 14-21 JUNE 2000
PRESS RELEASE NO. 2

TURKU, Finland/GENEVA, 14 June 2000, (LWI) --The president of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop Dr. Christian Krause, has said
that despite the myriad problems faced by people the world over today,
there is hope as portrayed in significant events in the life of the
Federation in the last few years.

In his address, "Half-time: Looking back to Hong Kong and forward from
Turku," to participants in the LWF Council meeting taking place here
from 14 to 21 June 2000, Krause pointed out that one resource human
beings have often underestimated is the ability to hope. "Hope is an
incredibly strong potential for strength. Even in extreme poverty and
under-development, it can mobilize initiatives for self-help. And, to be
honest, I cannot imagine how things would otherwise continue if the
people affected did not make themselves into participants by their
hope," he emphasized.

In his address, the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Brunswick told the 200 participants in the Council meeting that Turku in
June 2000 is half-time, time to take stock of what has happened and
changed since the Seventh Assembly in Hong Kong, China in 1997. It is
also the moment to contemplate on how the LWF shall continue taking into
account the obstacles in the way and planning for the next three to four
years before the next Assembly.

The LWF president described the signing of the Joint Declaration on the
Doctrine of Justification between the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church
on 31 October 1999 in Augsburg, Germany as the outstanding event in the
first half-time since Hong Kong. "Augsburg attracted greater national
and international media attention than any other church event in recent
decades. Local congregations throughout the world participated in
ecumenical celebrations and services of worship and now they are
justifiably pressing for consequences in the practical life of their
churches," Krause pointed out.

The Joint Declaration, according to Krause, stands for a new form of
ecumenical relationships in a double way. It is different from the
bilateral and multilateral documents such as the Leuenberg Agreement
(1973) between the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Europe, the Meissen
Agreement (1988) between the Church of England and the Evangelical
Church in Germany, and the Porvoo Agreement, (1996) between the British
and Irish Anglican churches and Lutheran churches in the Nordic and
Baltic regions since it is the first global agreement in which the South
has played a major part.

The LWF president told the Council participants that the Joint
Declaration represents a new form of ecumenism "in which the basic
understanding of reconciled diversity is becoming increasingly
convincing worldwide." For the LWF, the affirmation of the Joint
Declaration was a success because the instruments at the Federation's
disposal namely the Ecumenical institute in Strasbourg, the LWF
Department for Theology and Studies and the Federation's committees
especially the standing Committee for Ecumenical Affairs were used in a
cooperative way. Krause said that expanding this global network calls
for the development of working style that involves more strongly than in
the past, the institutions that are commonly shared "within the
Federation and in relation to our worldwide partners."

Krause pointed that the Joint Declaration process must now go further.
However, he said, three questions must be taken in mind. These include
firstly, the continuation of the scholarly theological work on the
unanswered and far-reaching questions especially on the different
understandings of the ministry and ecclesiology. "We need a new
ecumenical theology which can tackle the changed situation in
international Christianity, including the facts already mentioned of
departing from a concentration on the North Atlantic and of growing
cooperation and participation by the historical churches in the South."

Secondly, congregations are interested in the pastoral consequences of
the Joint Declaration as an initiative that not only helps improve the
situation of inter-church marriages and families, but one that also
fundamentally promotes good-neighborly relations between Protestant and
Catholic parishes in many places. "For this reason, in my view,
occasional Eucharistic hospitality with the aim of full Eucharistic
fellowship is therefore one of the most urgent pastoral tasks," Krause
said.

"We must also cooperate more closely and pool our energies in the realm
of ethical responsibility," the LWF president added as he underlined
"the positive effect on our sense of belonging and seeing ourselves as a
worldwide communion that resulted from the participation of the LWF
member churches in the Joint Declaration process.

Krause said that there is no other point in the history of the LWF that
all the synods and  church authorities of the member churches have been
so "actively involved in a theological document and -- despite all the
nuances -- reached so united a consensus on it. This can serve as a
point of contact. We must present the Federation more clearly than in
the past as a communion which is more than a loose federation of
territorial churches."

Krause also spoke of the need to increase the external influence of the
LWF through its various organs, including the office of president. He
said that following his visits to the member churches and especially
during the two major continental visits in Central and Latin America and
in East Africa, he had come to appreciate that the LWF is a respected
and esteemed partner worldwide for whom, through its representatives,
the doors to all the high and highest offices in state, society and the
churches are open.

He also pointed to the need of a communication strategy that into
account the increasing bilateral and multilateral situation and the new
challenges to ecumenical theology. "Despite all the merit of the
institutions and bodies we have in the LWF, I believe we shall need
stronger instruments in the future. But a stronger community can only be
a reality if there is more participation by all those who belong to this
communion" the Brunswick bishop said.

Krause told participants that the enthusiasm with which he has been
received during visits to member churches themselves and to political
leaders in various countries since he was elected LWF president in 1997,
attest to his conviction that the "Lutheran communion is a treasure." In
August 1999, the LWF president visited the Near East (Israel, Jordan and
Palestine). From the political side and ecumenical context he was
accorded similar reception when he visited Poland, Hungary and Romania
this year. He has already made similar visits to the Czech Republic and
the Slovak Republic.

Of his encounters in Europe, the LWF president said the East/West
partnership remains a key question for the continent. Everywhere in
Central Europe a new interest has arisen in the bridge function of the
churches since the churches embody a common European history. Krause
said that in the midst of ongoing discussion about a European cultural
identity linking the East and the West, he sees "many new bridges of
hope and culture between the churches" in the region. Although the
decades of separation from the Eastern bloc had obscured the fact that
the people on the continent belong to a common cultural context marked
by Christianity, it has become more evident that "Europe is also a
community of values which -- whether one acknowledges it or not -- has
and will continue to have Christian roots," he said.

Acknowledging the changes that have taken place in the last ten years
leading to the opening up borders thereby facilitating new partnerships,
Krause said such efforts could be supplemented with new initiatives. In
this regard, he called for the deepening of relationships with the
Orthodox churches, emphasizing that "European theology needs both the
Western and Eastern traditions.

Reflecting on the worldwide Christian celebration of 2000 years since
the birth of Christ, the LWF President spoke of the global fascination
around the figure 2000. He said what appears like an international
agreement on an industrial norm for time is  the product of a dominance
by Europeans and North Americans over the international economy and
technological developments. Krause pointed out that its is only about
one third of the world's population that is able to relate to the
Christian era, while other traditions and cultures have their way of
reckoning time.

Krause pointed out that the process of globalization "puts us all in the
same time and place." Christians, people who count their years from
Christ's birth, "have the duty to deal peacefully and tolerantly with
the way other cultures and religions understand time and themselves. We
must recognize that we are only part of the whole, even if we interpret
the whole from our point of view, namely starting with Christ", he said.

(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.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material
presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its
various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation
(LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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