wfn.org | LWF Women Church Representatives Prepare for Tenth Assembly

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

Women's Pre-Assembly Gathering in Montreux, Switzerland

GENEVA, 14 November 2002 (LWI) - Women representatives from the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches worldwide today
will begin a three-day "Pre-Assembly Women's Gathering" in
Montreux, Switzerland, with focus on the LWF Tenth Assembly theme
"For the Healing of the World."

The 58 participants mainly include regional coordinators of the
Department for Mission and Development (DMD) Women in Church and
Society (WICAS) desk and women leaders, as well as some Assembly
delegate representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America
and the Caribbean, and North America. Observers are drawn from the
Geneva Ecumenical Center-based World Council of Churches, World
Alliance of Reformed Churches and Conference of European Churches,
and from the Southern African Development Community.

During the 14-17 November gathering, the women representatives,
who are currently active in the life and witness of the church,
will share their witnesses, faith concerns and visions for the
Lutheran communion. In both plenary and group sessions,
participants will consider reflections on the Assembly theme
including issues to be reflected on in the ten Assembly Village
Groups, and deliberate to effect formulation of policies and
affirmative actions at the Assembly. Their combined input will be
shared and multiplied at the regional Pre-Assemblies where women
will gather one day before the main event.

Keynote presenters during the Pre-Assembly Women's Gathering will
include Rev. Dr Isabelle Graessle, Moderator, Protestant Church of
Geneva, and Dr Musimbi Kanyoro, General Secretary, World Young
Women's Christian Association.

LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko and DMD Director, Rev.
Dr Peri Rasolondraibe will address the gathering. The consultation
is sponsored by DMD/WICAS.

Resolutions and commitments made at the 1984 LWF Seventh Assembly
in Budapest, Hungary and the 1990 Eighth Assembly in Curitiba,
Brazil have paved the way for women's full involvement in shaping
the profile and living expressions of the Lutheran communion. This
is the first time before an LWF Assembly that a women's
consultation has taken the shape of a Pre-Assembly Women's
Gathering. Such strategy aims to bring women's experience in
concerted focus on to the Assembly theme, and to hold leadership
accountable.

The Assembly is the LWF's highest decision-making body, meeting
every six years. Regional Pre-Assemblies for the 2003 Tenth
Assembly will take place in: North America - January 23-26 -
Denver, USA; Europe - February 23-26, in Vienna, Austria; Asia -
March 2-6 in Medan, Indonesia; Africa - March 23-26 in Nairobi,
Kenya; and Latin America and the Caribbean - 6-9 April in San
Salvador, El Salvador.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 mllion 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
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