wfn.org | Potentially Church-dividing Issues Discussed at Strasbourg

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

Potentially Church-dividing Issues Discussed at Strasbourg Ecumenical
Institute Seminar
Varying Views on Bio-ethics and Homosexuality

STRASBOURG, France/GENEVA, 25 August 2005 (LWI) * A number of ethical
issues are challenging the churches increasingly, some of them leading to
tensions that threaten unity within and among churches. It is against this
background that the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg,
France, focused its 2005 Summer Seminar, on two currently divisive issues,
namely genetic engineering and homosexuality.

Sixty participants from different countries and confessions attended the
seminar. Although opinions were diverse, the participants engaged in an
"open and charitable debate finding a great deal of consensus and
identifying areas for further discussion," said Dr Kenneth Appold,
research professor at the institute and the seminar's coordinator.

Three keynote speakers addressed the issue of bio-ethics, agreeing on a
number of important principles,  including the fundamental belief that
human life is God's creation and requires special protection at all stages
of development. However, the speakers could not agree on how to define the
beginning of life. For Roman Catholic professor Eberhard Schockenhoff
(Germany) the moment of fertilization is the definite point of beginning.
Lutheran theologians, Prof. Klaus Tanner (Germany) and Rev. Dr Jean-François Collange, president of the Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace
and Lorraine (France), were less precise in this regard, observing that
rapidly evolving scientific knowledge made most such efforts problematic.
Differing views on the beginning of life led to different positions on
embryonic stem-cell research. Schockenhoff opposes this area of research,
while the two Lutherans give their consent, albeit with rigorous ethical
qualifications.

On the topic of homosexuality, the participants shared experiences from
their various home churches. They especially focused on how to respond to
homosexual partnerships; and whether to ordain homosexuals living in such
partnerships. Rev. Dr Karen Bloomquist, director of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) Department for Theology and Studies, proposed theological
and methodological perspectives for engaging the differences on this topic
without their becoming church-dividing.

Professors Eugene Rogers (USA) and Philippe Bordeyne (France), developed
some creative understandings of marriage in general, and how these may or
may not apply to same-sex relationships. Marriage, they agreed, is a part
of the church's public witness; married couples contribute to the church's
mission. They disagreed on whether homosexual partnership is capable of
such a contribution. Bordeyne argued that it cannot, since marriage
witnesses to God's will for sexual difference*male and female - at
Creation. For Rogers, marriage is above all an exercise in spiritual
asceticism, cultivating spiritual values of fidelity, self-sacrifice and
love. In his view, any couple whose relationship embodied those qualities
contributed to the church's mission to the world, hence, his call for
allowing homosexuals to marry.

Participants left with a sense that it is possible and necessary to
continue these discussions in their own churches. (469 words)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a total membership of nearly 66 million. 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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