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LWF 11th Assembly in 2010 Will Be a Milestone
General Secretary Noko at Kirchentag in Cologne
COLOGNE, Germany/GENEVA, 20 July 2007 (LWI) - The 11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to be held in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2010 is to be "a milestone," according to LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko. Speaking early June at the German Protestant Kirchentag (annual church gathering) in Cologne, the general secretary said the dialogue with secular society, but also with other religions must be intensified.
"We must learn to listen to each other better and to speak with each other," Noko said. He also called for the reduction of enemy images within the ecumenical world. One such effort, he said, was the continuation of dialogue between the LWF and Roman Catholic Church.
At the invitation of the German National Committee of the LWF (GNC/LWF), Noko took part for the second time in the Kirchentag, the largest lay meeting of Protestant Christians in Germany, which takes place every other year. The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland hosted the 6-10 June 2007 meeting under theme "Living and Active and Sharper." According to the organizers, some 110,000 participants registered for the entire event and thousands more came for day visits.
Noko spoke on 7 June at the stand of the GNC/LWF and United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) at the Kirchentagâs "Market of Possibilities." He reported to some 50 former LWF scholarship holders and participants of earlier LWF assemblies on the current challenges facing the organization. He also touched on the preparations for the 11th Assembly to be hosted by the Evangelical Church in Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart.
For many of the former LWF scholarship holders, their time as students in another Lutheran church opened up new life perspectives. "During my year in Brazil, I developed an understanding for ecumenism, which still has an effect on me and influences my parish work," one participant said. One former scholarship holder, who studied clinical pastoral training (a program now also available in Germany) in the United States, can still recall today how important his time there was not only for his work but also for his own personal development.
Around 30 German theology students still receive GNC/LWF scholarships for study abroad each year. In addition, some 25 young people from Lutheran churches in Central and Eastern Europe, Brazil and the United States are granted scholarships to study theology in Germany. Upon their return home, they often serve as important contacts for partnerships between the Lutheran churches.
Oberkirchenrat Norbert Denecke, GNC/LWF executive secretary, was visibly pleased with the enthusiastic reaction to the German national committeeâs invitation to "friends of the Lutheran World Federation." He said that this was "a good sign for a sense of membership in the Lutheran world family!" He invited those present to take a "close and familiar" interest in the preparations for the 2010 Stuttgart Assembly and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Wittenberg, Germany in 2017. (496 words)
(Contributed by LWI correspondent Regina Karasch, GNC/LWF, Committee for Church Cooperation and World Service, Stuttgart.)
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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.)
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