wfn.org | LWI 2008-053 Worship and Mission Are Church's Central Tasks

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Worship and Mission Are Church's Central Tasks
Common Forms of Expression Strengthen Christian Unity

BOSSEY, Switzerland/GENEVA, 20 August 2008 (LWI) - "Church is first and  foremost worship," and every understanding of the Church has worship as  its point of departure. This emphasis on the central role of worship for  the Church was made at a recent international ecumenical conference of the  Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which ushered a new LWF study program  that seeks to interpret, from a Lutheran perspective, the ecclesiological  formulation of the Nicene Creed.

Theologians from different Christian traditions attending the conference  affirmed that all other church activities and social services, as well as  organizational structures and staffing were subordinated to the celebration  of worship. Church is worship whenever people gather in the name and  presence of the Triune God and celebrate together, noted participants in  the meeting, focusing on the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church -  the Protestant understanding of the Church in an ecumenical horizon."

The LWF Department for Theology and Studies (DTS) organized the 12-16 June  meeting at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, attended by 20 theologians  from Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions. Worship, they  concurred, was the yardstick against which every other church activity was  measured.

However, as pointed out by Prof. Eberhard Juengel from Tuebingen, Germany,  worship in the Protestant understanding has a dual nature. On the one hand  "we have worship in its liturgical form and on the other we have worship  in everyday life (cf. Rom 12:1). What defines an individual church in  terms of its confession is how it worships God and serves the world," he  explained.

>A Church on Earth

"The church is needed on earth so that Christ's work of salvation and the  Holy Spirit's action can take concrete shape and change the world," said  Rev. Dr Hans-Peter Grosshans, DTS study secretary for Theology and the  Church. Serving God and serving the world, therefore, are the general  tasks of the Church, he noted.

Participants agreed that Reformation theology should place more emphasis  on the visible realization of the salvation promised to humankind than was  generally assumed. They stressed the need to counter any false identificati on with Jesus Christ as belonging to any individual church. They insisted  emphasis must be placed on the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in  the many Christian churches.

>Church's Missionary Task Continues

Rev. Dr Cheryl Peterson from the United States pointed out that the  Church's mission was not fulfilled, but still continues. This mission  affords churches the sole means by which they can look toward the future  rather than merely perpetuating traditions. Mission together with worship,  she explained, are what essentially defines the church's profile.

Participants also discussed the diverse ways in which churches carry out  their missionary tasks - dialogue with other faiths; diakonia through  assistance to persons in emergency situations and development-related  activities; and in the prophetic denunciation of injustice and falsehood  in a specific local context or at international level.

The mission of the Church - and its means of achieving holiness - includes  being "a divine instrument of peace and justice in society," said Zambian  theologian Rev. Rolita Machila. One criticism raised was that this aspect  of mission was seldom addressed in ecumenical dialogues.

>More of the Nicene Creed

Participants also deliberated the visibility and profiling of Lutheran  commitment to ecumenism in the specific cultural and religious contexts of  the LWF member churches. In order to ensure that existing expressions of  unity were not neglected, the international group of theologians urged  that congregations recite more often the commonly shared Nicene Creed, as  it can be a visible and audible sign of communion with Christians from  other confessions.

"Lutheran ecclesiology must not seek to assert itself in opposition to  other Christian confessions, but with them," said Grosshans, pointing also  to the participation of Baptist, Orthodox, Reformed and Roman Catholic  theologians in the LWF consultation.

The theologians affirmed the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church"  confessed in the Nicene Creed contains the seeds for the future critical  development of Lutheran ecclesiology.

Follow up meetings of the DTS study program will explore the four  hallmarks of the Church - oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity  - and their meaning and relevance for the life of Lutheran churches within  their diverse cultural, religious and social contexts. (708 words)

For more information on the new LWF/DTS study program, see,  http://www.lut heranworld.org/What_We_Do/Dts/Programs/DTS-Theology-Church.html

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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 141  member churches in 79 countries all over the world, with a total membership  of over 68.3 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 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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