wfn.org | LWF Call to Engage Economic Globalization, Churches in Transition

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Call to Engage Economic Globalization, Reflect on How Churches Are in
Transition
Assembly Worship Resource, Study on Spiritualistic Movements also
Affirmed

GENEVA, 18 July 2001 (LWI) - At its June 2001 meeting the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) Council encouraged LWF member churches to hold
discussions on the working paper, Engaging Economic Globalization as a
Communion, produced and distributed recently through the Department for
Theology and Studies (DTS).

A publication of the DTS Church and Social Issues desk, the working
paper seeks to initiate a process throughout the LWF member churches and
in their wider relationships for reflecting on and responding to the
dynamics and effects of economic globalization. The Council urged the
churches to communicate their responses to the department by 1 March
2002 so that a report might be brought to the 2002 Council meeting.

The Council, acting on recommendations presented by Rev. Dr. Joachim
Track, chairperson of the Program Committee for Theology and Studies,
also authorized the LWF at all levels to participate in ecumenical
efforts to deal with economic globalization, especially in cooperation
with the World Council of Churches and World Alliance of Reformed
Churches.

The Council also encouraged the LWF secretariat, member churches, and
theological institutions to give attention to the findings of the
three-year study program "Communion, Community, Society," under the
auspices of the DTS Theology and the Church desk, and to consider how
best to pursue the impact and implications in their respective settings
and for the communion as a whole.

The results of the study, being published in the book Between Vision and
Reality: Lutheran Churches in Transition in the LWF Documentation
series, offer reflection on the relationship between the church and its
social, political, economic and cultural settings as well as the impact
of the ecclesial formation and emergent ecclesiological and theological
models.

The Council also affirmed the continuing work of the department's
Worship and Congregational Life desk to collect and develop material for
an assembly worship resource, with the possibility that at a later date,
after further assessment of its potential use, it might become a new
international Lutheran hymnbook. The resource, primarily intended for
use at the 2003 Tenth LWF Assembly, should consist of new and old hymns,
both Lutheran and ecumenical as well as different orders of worship. The
collection could be the basis for the new hymnbook, which eventually
would replace Laudamus.

In another action, the Council affirmed plans for a new study program,
"Spiritualistic Movements as a Global Challenge for the Church" by the
desk for Church and People of Other Faiths. Through a process that will
begin with regional consultations, the project will address phenomena of
spiritualistic belief and movements and their challenges for churches.
It seeks to promote study, research, and reflection on spiritualistic
movements, spiritualistic beliefs and phenomena in the Bible, church
history and presently.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 133 member
churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5 million of the 64.3
million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical relations,
theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the
various aspects of mission and development work. Its 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 acknowledgement.]

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