wfn.org | LWI News in Brief for No. 7 and No. 8, 2003

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

- Theologian, Communicator, Rev. Dr John Bachman Dies
- Queen Elizabeth II Honors Australian Lutheran Lance Steicke
- Theologian Jean-Frangois Collange to Succeed Marc Lienhard in French
Church
- "Time for Action" toward USD 500,000 Asia Target for LWF Endowment Fund 
- Saskatoon, Canada Receives Pre-Assembly Visitors 

Theologian, Communicator, Rev. Dr John Bachman Dies

The Rev. Dr John W. Bachman, author, former college president, retired
church communicator and pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA), died July 7 at the age of 87 in Minneapolis, United States. In the
mid through late '80s, Bachman was a member of the then Commission on
Communication in the Lutheran World Federation. Born May 30, 1916, in
Youngstown, Ohio, Bachman was a graduate of Capital University, Columbus,
Ohio, and the former Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary (ELTS),
Columbus. Ordained in 1941, he served as pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church,
Warren, Ohio, and earned a master's degree from Ohio State University,
Columbus. Bachman served on the faculties of Capital University and Baylor
University, Waco, Texas, before becoming a professor of practical theology
and director of the Center for Communication and the Arts, Union Theological
Seminary, New York. In 1964 Bachman became the 11th president of Wartburg
College, Waverly, Iowa. From 1974 until his retirement in 1980, Bachman was
director of the Office of Communication and Mission Support of the former
American Lutheran Church, which merged with two other Lutheran churches to
form the ELCA in 1988. Bachman authored several books on media and theology.
A funeral service was held July 10 at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
Bachman is survived by his wife Elsie and son John. He is preceded in death
by his son Charles, who was also a Lutheran pastor.

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Queen Elizabeth II Honors Australian Lutheran Lance Steicke

Queen Elizabeth II of England has honored the former president of the
Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA), Rev. Lance Graham Steicke, by appointing
him as Member of the Order of Australia for his service to ecumenism. Steicke
is president of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), which
he helped to establish nine years ago. The honor was bestowed on Steicke
despite the often critical stand of the NCCA toward the policy of the present
conservative Australian government, for instance in regard to refugees or
reconciliation with the Aboriginal peoples. The NCCA is an ecumenical body to
which 15 churches currently belong. The 85,000-member LCA is an associate
member church of the Lutheran World Federation, which it joined in 1994.

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Theologian Jean-Frangois Collange to Succeed Marc Lienhard in French Church

The Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine (ECAAL) in
France will have a new president beginning October 1. The Rev. Dr
Jean-Frangois Collange will succeed Rev. Dr Marc Lienhard who has served
as ECAAL president since 1997. Legally the position of ECAAL president is for
life, but there is an established practice of a ten-year mandate. Lienhard,
who turns 68 this year, announced last October that he wished to leave the
church's highest post in order to devote more time to his work at the
university of Strasbourg, France where he previously taught theology.
Collange, 59, was elected on May 24 during this year's meeting of the ECAAL
governing body. He received 15 votes against five for Ms Sylvie Reff-Stern.
The ECAAL president-elect holds a doctorate in Protestant theology following
studies in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Strasbourg. Formerly a pastor in
Strasbourg-Neuhof, Collange is a professor of ethics at the faculty of
theology in Strasbourg, where he had served as dean 1996-2000. He headed the
commission of theology in ECAAL's governing body. Vice-president of
Strasbourg's Marc-Bloch university, the new ECAAL president is also member of
the Christian association for the abolition of torture, ACAT, and is a
presidential (of the republic) appointee to the national consultative
committee on ethics. Collange and his wife have three adult children and five
grandchildren. The 210,000-member ECAAL is the largest of the three Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) member churches in France. It joined the LWF in 1947.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of France has 40,000 people, and the Malagasy
Protestant Church in France has a membership of 8,000.

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"Time for Action" toward USD 500,000 Asia Target for LWF Endowment Fund 

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Asia region plans to raise USD 500,000
toward the LWF Endowment Fund by the year 2010. In a follow-up appeal to her
presentation at the LWF Asia Pre-Assembly Consultation, March 2-6 in Medan,
Indonesia, Ms Lai Yoke Kiew, the region's representative on the Endowment
Fund board of directors says she anticipates "great action" on the commitment
made by church leaders at the time." In a message titled "Time for Action" in
the 2003 July/August issue of Asia Lutheran News, Kiew asks churches to
consider two strategies: giving one US dollar per member and designating one
Sunday offering collection to the Endowment Fund. The LWF Asia region has 46
member churches with 7 million people. Launched at the 1997 Ninth Assembly in
Hong Kong, China, the Endowment Fund has around USD 4.5 million in receipts
and pledges. The goal is USD 10 million by 2004 and 50 million by 2010.

*     *      *
Saskatoon, Canada Receives Pre-Assembly Visitors 

Four delegates to the Tenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
visited Saskatoon, Canada, July 15-20, before traveling to the Assembly, held
July 21-31 in Winnipeg. The Pre-Assembly visit theme, "For the Healing of the
City" echoed that of the Assembly, "For the Healing of the World." According
to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Saskatchewan synod office, the
team toured a number of Lutheran institutions and discussed concerns ranging
from pastoral recruitment and education, to issues related to street
children, First Nations people, care for the elderly and globalization. The
visitors included Rev. Marie-France Robert, France; Ms Lilian Carmen de
Aquino Beck, Argentina; Bishop Walter Jagucki, England; and Dr Meenakshi
Solomon, India. Similar visits to North American Lutheran congregations,
neighborhoods and ministries were organized under the Pre- and Post-Assembly
Visitation Program. More information can be found at
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/visitation.html 

(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 million
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas
of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith 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 LWF's information service. Unless
specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or
opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of a article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with
acknowledgment.]

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