wfn.org | FEATURE: Lutheran Youth Call for Constructive Globalization

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@ELCA.ORG>]

Three Year LWF Program to Focus on Leadership Formation

GENEVA, 22 May 2002 (LWI) - When members of a Lutheran congregation
in Texas, United States of America, were asked to describe
globalization in one word, they responded>unity, interdependence,
one, community, diversity and capitalism.

When a cross-section of the global Lutheran community was asked the
same question, the answers were: "wicked, hopeless, busy,
exclusive, manic, corrupt, violated, complex, competitive and sad."
So does globalization unite or divide, benefit or harm?

"Globalization is like the rapture. Some are taken away, others are
left behind, and it all happens so quickly." This is how Christine
Mangale, a volunteer facilitator of the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran
Church HIV/AIDS program described the phenomenon. Benny Sinaga, a
theology student from the Protestant Christian Batak Church,
Indonesia, likened it to a monster: "It has eaten some countries
and we are living in its stomach."

Mangale and Sinaga are participants in a three-year Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) International Youth Program: Transformation
through Participation (IYP-TTP). Organized by the Youth in Church
and Society desk of the LWF Department for Mission and Development,
the IYP-TTP is a program for youth leadership formation and for the
establishment of a network to address globalization.

Carefully selected from more than 80 applicants from around the
world, the 22 youth leaders>11 men and 11 women>from 22 countries
of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will this year launch
projects on responses to the negative effects of globalization as
part of their internship that will include issues on youth in
decision-making processes, church mission, and church and society.
Encounters in each of the four regions in 2002 and another global
event in 2003 will provide continuity and ongoing motivation for
this ambitious plan.

A one-week IYP-TTP orientation conference in Geneva, Switzerland
last September was spent dialoguing with church leaders and
economists. But more significant were the participants' stories and
candid remarks, as well as the friendships that emerged among the
members of this new global community.

For Jenny Dewar, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, "the most
valuable part of this program has been connecting with people from
other parts of the world. Now when I discuss or hear about
globalization issues, I attach a face and a friend to them." Topics
on the socio-economic crisis in Argentina made her think of her
friend and co-participant Roberto Albarracmn, United Evangelical
Lutheran Church, "and how he and his family and friends are being
affected."

Tim Barr, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was struck by the
contrasts provoked by globalization, which, he believes, "is
fuelled by greed for greater profits . . . and the rampant
exploitation of the earth's resources and people. Globalization>the
widening, deepening, and hurtling speed of global
integration>benefits the wealthy, privileged, and information-rich
disproportionately to the rest of the world that often does not
benefit at all."

The IYP-TTP participants also learnt from youth leadership aspects.
Kristine Moore, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Venezuela, said she
had increased "capacity for forming opinions" in previously
unfamiliar themes. Alina Solntseva, Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Ingria in Russia, was enthusiastic about the skills and tools
acquired to cope with her various responsibilities and also to
enable her resolve many of the problems that she faces.

The participants from the "South", less comfortable with the
globalized use of the English language and with less access to the
globalized medium of the Internet, were at a disadvantage also in
contributing to this article.

Barr contemplates the next steps: "All of us at the conference
agreed that education is the best long-term solution. We realized
that seeking unity and dreaming dreams would bring us closer to
overcoming injustice in the world. But how do we follow Jesus'
example of compassionately caring for those who suffer here and
now?" For Julius Filo Jr., Evangelical Church of the Augsburg
Confession in the Slovak Republic, responding to the negative
effects of globalization calls for concrete actions not merely
words.

At the orientation conference, the young people urged the church
"to constructively engage and challenge global economic and
political systems, thereby greatly realigning the balance of power
and distribution of resources, not only in society but also within
the church."

(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 acknowledgment.]

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