wfn.org | Absent Delegates at LWF Assembly Say 'We Are Still Pained by

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Absent Delegates at LWF Assembly Say 'We Are Still Pained by This Wound'
Indian Churches Dispute Canadian Government Explanation for Visa Denials

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia/GENEVA, 15 June 2004 (LWI) * Representatives of 
Lutheran churches in India still feel hurt about being barred by the 
Canadian government from attending the July 2003 Tenth Assembly of the 
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The LWF must take steps to ensure such a 
scandal does not recur, said the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
India (UELCI) Executive Secretary, Rev. Chandran Paul Martin.

Twenty-seven participants from India were denied visas to attend the 
Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada, along with some 30 participants from several 
African and Asian countries. They were refused visas despite assurances 
from the sending church in India, from the Assembly host church Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in Canada, and LWF Geneva Secretariat.

Martin does not regard the matter as closed. "We are still pained by this 
wound," he told Lutheran World Information (LWI) during the Asian Church 
Leadership Conference (ACLC), which he was attending in early June in Kuala 
Lumpur, Malaysia.

"We would like this wound to be healed." However, the UELCI has still not 
received any written explanation of the decision either from the Canadian 
government or the High Commission in New Delhi. Martin personally had 
traveled to the Indian capital from the church's secretariat in Chennai to 
submit the batch of 27 visa applications.

The only clue as to the Canadian authorities' reason for rejecting the 
Indian requests was a mark on each applicant's form, indicating that the 
authorities were not convinced the applicants would return to their home 
country. Martin is still scornful: "We were insulted by this criterion."

Five other Assembly participants from India who made separate applications 
were issued visas by the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi and were 
thus able to travel to Winnipeg. This contradicted the Canadian 
authorities' wholesale rejection of the applications submitted by the 
UELCI, Martin said. The would-be participants included several veteran 
church leaders with decades of experience as international travelers.

Martin lauded the several ways in which the Assembly delegates remembered 
the absent participants in Winnipeg. He was also grateful to LWF General 
Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko for his support. During a visit to India 
last November, Noko told UELCI officials that he was still in touch with 
the Canadian government over the visa denials.

Call for Future Government Assurances

When the LWF decides on venues of its international meetings in the future, 
it must insist on assurances from each host country's government that visas 
would be issued to all participants, the UELCI executive secretary said. 
Countries whose governments were unwilling to accept all participants 
should be avoided, Martin stressed.

The Indian delegates who could not travel to Winnipeg agreed at the time 
that they would back all decisions taken by the Assembly. "Maybe some 
elections would have been different if we had been there," mused Martin, 
who was appointed to serve on the LWF Council.

Several Lutheran churches in India staged retreats and other events at the 
time to pray for the Assembly. "In a way we were not too far away," the 
UELCI executive secretary concluded. (525 words)

(See Message from the LWF Tenth Assembly at 
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/PDFs/LWF_Assembly_Message.pdf
and Statement on the Exclusion of Assembly Participants at 
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/PDFs/LWF-Resolutions_and_Statements.pdf

(By Amsterdam-based LWI correspondent Andreas Havinga, who attended the
ACLC.)

(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 62.3 million of the almost 66 million 
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas 
of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith 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 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 an 
article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced 
with acknowledgment.]

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