wfn.org | LWI Council Press Release No.07/2009 Reformation Sunday Sermon Calls for Truth That Sets Free

["LWFNews" <LWFNews@lutheranworld.org>]

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION  
>LWI News online:
>http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html 

LWI Council Press Release No. 07/2009  

Reformation Sunday Sermon Calls for Truth That Sets Free
LWF President Hanson Affirms Restoration of Human Relationship

GENEVA, 26 October 2009 (LWI) - During Sunday morning worship on
25 October, the President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Bishop Mark S. Hanson challenged Lutheran church representatives
from around the world to tell the story of "the truth that sets
free" as they lead the organization into the future.

"The truth that makes you free isn’t some idea you have to
discover [nor] some religious proposition to which you must give
a cent or some personal decision you must make," Hanson told the
LWF Council members in his Sunday morning sermon at the chapel of
the Ecumenical Center where the LWF Secretariat is located.

The LWF governing body began its meeting on 22 October, and will
conclude on 27 October. This year’s theme is “Upholding Human
Dignity: Confronting Human Trafficking.”

The eucharistic service was celebrated in the context of
Reformation Sunday worship. It included a symbolic affirmation of
baptism, during which participants dipped their fingers into a
bowl of water and made a sign of the cross on the hand of the
neighboring person, saying, "Remember you are baptized." 

The LWF president said, "The story we tell is about writing a
new script," an embodied narrative centered in Jesus, and in
God’s reconciling love and mercy. He pointed out that while
Christ sets free from bondage to sin, death and the devil, this
"liberation is not a kind of release, banishment, sending you out
on your own," but rather "forgiveness and your incorporation,
your restoration into the abundant life of God's household." 

Hanson underlined that great freedoms had been experienced
because of curiosity to discover the truth about DNA, distanced
galaxies, diseases and what sustains diverse eco systems.
However, he explained, an unintended irony that had resulted out
of this was that modernism also includes its own skepticism.

He expressed concern that people not only lived in a culture of
deception that refused to see the truth, but that "we construct
alternative truth [and] narratives, seemingly so plausible, so
believable that we end up deceiving ourselves."

Hanson spoke of narratives of economic recovery in the USA based
on stock market indices yet unemployment there averaged 10.5
percent and over half the world's population lived in poverty.
"We deceive ourselves that our consumption does not destroy the
environment, that the Israeli occupation brings security rather
than breeds resentment. Or that the perpetuation of white male
power and privilege is some how based upon God's intentions for
humanity," he added.

He cited some of the stories that could be told about the life
and work of the LWF, its Council members and advisers as well as
staff, and the implications for freedom and reconciliation.

The 1999 signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification between the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church was
an act of being released from burdens of condemnation. Similarly,
a proposed statement for action on the legacy of Lutheran
persecution of "Anabaptists" which will be considered during the
current Council meeting signified healing of memories. The
breaking of the silence on HIV and AIDS is to release people from
the chains of stigmatization and discrimination, restoring them
to life in community, the LWF president explained. 

He described reflections at the June 2008 Council meeting in
Tanzania under the theme "Melting Snow on Mount Kilimanjaro: A
Witness of a Suffering Creation," and the symbolic climate change
action of forming the figure '350' at a morning prayer on 24
October, as a call "for the release of creation from our
destructive consumption and to restore sustainability to life."
Equally important are faith reflections on gender and power,
signifying God’s restoration of human relationships that are
“not based upon domination and male power and privilege.”

Hanson said he had cited these examples as part of story that
needed to be told, as it was "the story of God incarnation in
Jesus Christ, the story of God’s reconciliation and
forgiveness, the story of our continuing reformation." (674
words)

More information on the 2009 LWF Council meeting is available on
the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org

>*      *      *

Around 75 representatives from LWF member churches and partner
organizations are attending this year’s Council meeting at
Chavannes de Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland. An additional 90
registered participants include invited guests, stewards,
interpreters and translators, media persons and LWF staff. 

The 49-member Council is the LWF’s governing body, meeting
every 12-18 months between Assemblies held every six years. The
current Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in
Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer as well
as lay and ordained persons, representing the different LWF
regions. 

The Council host church, the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has
6,818 members, and has been an LWF member church since 1979. It
is headed by Ms Dagmar Magold.

>For media related queries, please contact:

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION 
>Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 
>Fax: +41/22-791 66 30 
>Editor’s E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org 

At Hotel Chavannes de Bogis, Tel. +41/22-960 81 81
Mobile Tel. +41/76 396 2863

Further information about the 2009 LWF Council meeting is
available on the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org 

>*      *      *

Around 75 representatives from LWF member churches and partner
organizations are attending this year’s Council meeting at
Chavannes de Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland. An additional 90
registered participants include invited guests, stewards,
interpreters and translators, media persons and LWF staff. 

The 49-member Council is the LWF’s governing body, meeting
every 12-18 months between Assemblies held every six years. The
current Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in
Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer as well
as lay and ordained persons, representing the different LWF
regions. 

The Council host church, the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has
6,818 members, and has been an LWF member church since 1979. It
is headed by Ms Dagmar Magold.

>For media related queries, please contact:
>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION 
>Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 
>Fax: +41/22-791 66 30 
>E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org 

At Hotel Chavannes de Bogis, Tel. +41/22-960 81 81
Mobile Tel. +41/76 396 2863

>*      *      *