LWI News in Brief 01-2001
+ South African Church Leader Becomes First Woman Head of Global Moravian Board + VELKD Official Appointed Vice President of EKD Church Office + Czech Republic: Stanislav Pietak Is New SKEAV Bishop + New LWF Publication on Leadership and Power in Church Ministry + Namibian Lutheran Churches Move Toward Unity + Hymn Text Competition for "Familiar Tune" at Canadian Full Communion Anniversary + Canadian National Bishop Schultz to Retire
South African Church Leader Becomes First Woman to Head Global Moravian Board
Ms Angelene Harriet Swart, president of the Moravian Church in South Africa, has been elected chairperson of the Unity Board of the worldwide Moravian Church - Unitas Fratrum. She becomes the first woman and lay theologian to head the governing board of the worldwide Protestant church.
She will serve as chairperson of the Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren) Unity Board from January 2007 for the period 2007/2008.
Swart, 56, an educator and theologian, has been president of the Moravian Church in South Africa since 2001. In 2002, she was elected vice president of the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA), and has been a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council since July 2003. She is currently chairperson of the LWF Assembly Planning Committee.
The worldwide Moravian Church consists of 19 provinces. Its Unity Board, which runs church business between synods, is made up of one representative from each province alongside the chairpersons of internationally active church foundations.
The Moravian Church has over 762,000 members in 20 countries. The church has its origins in the persecuted Brethren from Bohemia and Moravia who took refuge in Herrnhut in the German region of Upper Lusatia.
The 80,000-member Moravian Church in South Africa joined the LWF in 1975. (219 words)
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VELKD Official Appointed Vice President of EKD Church Office
As part of last yearâs agreement by Germanyâs Protestant churches to strengthen cooperation between them, the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has appointed the president of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) Church Office, Rev. Dr Friedrich Hauschildt, as vice president of the EKD Church Office. Effective 1 January 2007, Hauschildt heads Section III - Public Responsibility and Education - of the EKD Church Office, and continues as head of the VELKD Church Office, a position he has held since November 2001.
The VELKD Church Office, until now in Hanover, and the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK) Church Office, previously located in Berlin, Germany, will both move together to join the EKD Church Office in Hanover, Germany.
Born in 1950, Hauschildt studied in Kiel and Goettingen, Germany, and holds a doctorate in theology. He served as a parish pastor in the North Elbian church for nine years. From 1985 to 1991 he was Oberkirchenrat in the VELKD Lutheran Church Office, after which he served as director of the pastoral seminary in Celle, until 1998, and as Oberlandeskirchenrat in the church office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover.
The VELKD is an association of eight Evangelical churches in Bavaria, Brunswick, Hanover, Mecklenburg, North Elbia, Saxony, Schaumburg-Lippe and Thuringia, which represent some 9.75 million church members. (229 words)
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Czech Republic: Stanislav Pietak Is New SKEAV Bishop
Rev. Dr Stanislav Pietak was installed in early January as bishop of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (SKEAV) in the Czech Republic. The SKEAV synod elected Pietak in November 2006 to succeed Bishop Vladislav Volny, who, in accordance with the church constitution, could not be re-elected after serving two terms of office.
Pietak was born in 1946. He studied at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, and at the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw, Poland. He received his doctorate from the Comenius University in 1999.
He was chairperson for catechetics at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Ostrava, Czech Republic from 1992 until the subject was transferred to the Chair for Social Sciences, which he continues to hold today. Pietak has also been pastor of the Trinec parish for 12 years, and administrator of the Nebory parish since last year, both located in the Czech Republic.
Pietak is married with four children. (162 words)
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New LWF Publication on Leadership and Power in Church Ministry
"Leadership and Power in the Ministry of Church" is the title of a new
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) resource aimed at reflection and discussion in the churches on how leadership and power are exercised in light of central biblical and theological understandings.
Produced by the LWF Department for Theology and Studies (DTS) in February 2007, the 32-page publication is a response to a 2003 LWF Tenth Assembly appeal to member churches to face up to issues on leadership and power in the church's ministry and to seek constructive solutions.
The publication's author, Rev. Dr Reinhard Boettcher, LWF/DTS Study Secretary for Theology and the Church, focuses on the theological aspects. He provides some relevant biblical perspectives of the issue as well as insights from a Lutheran understanding of ministry and explores their significance for the exercise of leadership and power in the church. He also indicates the implications for the practical life of the member churches as well as for relations between them within the Lutheran communion.
Copies of "Leadership and Power in the Ministry of the Church" are available free of charge, with postage and packing costs for bulk orders. Please write to liesch@lutheranworld.org or The LWF Department for Theology and Studies, 150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, Tel. +41/22-791 61 11, Fax +41/22-791 66 30. (234 words)
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Namibian Lutheran Churches Move Toward Unity
The three Lutheran churches in Namibia have affirmed their commitment to Lutheran unity in the country through the formal establishment of a united church council on 1 March.
The establishment of the United Church Council of the Namibia Evangelical Lutheran Churches (UCC-NELC) followed a meeting in November 2006 at which the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) and the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN-GELC) decided to move toward unification. The UCC-NELC replaces the Lutheran World Federation-Namibian National Committee (LWF-NCC) which was formed 14 years ago to foster greater Lutheran unity in Namibia. This will now be dissolved to make way for the new council.
"We are now looking for ways of joint activities and of strengthening a unified Lutheran voice in matters of common concern. The ultimate aim is to become one Lutheran church in Namibia," the country's Lutheran bishops said in a joint statement.
A 22 April celebration at the Inner-City Lutheran Congregation in Windhoek will mark the UCC-NELC's establishment, including the official inauguration of its members.
The Lutheran churches make up the biggest Christian denomination in Namibia with the ELCIN accounting for 652,195 members, the ELCRN 350,000 members, while the ELCIN-GELC has 5,200 members. All three are LWF member churches. They account for slightly more than half of Namibia's total population of 2 million people. (227 words)
(Erika von Wietersheim and Ecumenical News International)
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Hymn Text Competition for "Familiar Tune" at Canadian Full Communion Anniversary
To celebrate the sixth anniversary of full communion between the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), the Joint Anglican-Lutheran Commission (JALC) has announced a Hy mn Text Competition to find "new words to a familiar tune." The wining entry will be sung during the joint gathering of the ELCIC National Convention and the ACC General Synod in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 21 June 2007.
The Waterloo Declaration, the full communion agreement between the ACC and ELCIC was formally endorsed by the churches' governing bodies in Waterloo, Ontario, in July 2001. It allows both churches to share resources and work closely together on common goals while maintaining their distinct identities.
The ELCIC is Canada's largest Lutheran denomination with over 174,500 members in five synods, comprising 624 congregations. It is led by National Bishop Raymond Schultz.
The ACC includes nearly 642,000 members in 30 dioceses with around 1,790 parishes. Archbishop Andrew Hutchison is the church's primate. (170 words)
Further information about the JALC hymn competition is available on the following links: http://www.elcic.ca/docs/HymnTextCompetition-Web.pdf http://www.elcic.ca/docs/HymnTextCompetition.pdf (ELCIC News)
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Canadian National Bishop Schultz to Retire
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) National Bishop Raymond L. Schultz has announced his retirement effective 1 September 2007, citing personal health and family reasons. Schultz was elected ELCIC national bishop at the 2001 National Convention in Waterloo and re-elected for a second term in 2005.
The election of his successor will take place at the June 2007 National Convention in Winnipeg. Prior to his election as the head of the ELCIC, Schultz was bishop of the British Columbia Synod from 1998 to 2001.
Schultz is a member of the Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), serving on its Program Committee for Ecumenical Affairs and Standing Committee for Constitution. He is currently chairperson of the LWF Renewal Committee. (127 words) (ELCIC News)
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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of nearly 66.7 million. 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 the LWFâs 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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