Communiqué from the third Anglican?Lutheran International Commission in Jerusalem

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Posted On : June 27, 2011 11:12 AM | Posted By : Admin ACO

ACNS: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2011/6/27/ACNS4896

> Related Categories: ACO - Ecumenical

Communiqué from the third Anglican?Lutheran International Commission

> The third Anglican?Lutheran International
> Commission (ALIC) held its sixth and final
> meeting in the holy city Jerusalem between 18 and
> 25 June 2011, under the leadership of the Most
> Reverend Fred Hiltz, Primate of Canada, and of
> the Reverend Dr Thomas Nyiwé, Bishop of the
> Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon.

The meeting was hosted by the Anglican Communion
with the generous assistance of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was chosen as the venue for this
meeting at the Stuttgart Assembly of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF), at which Bishop Dr Munib
Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Jordan and the Holy Land, was elected
President of the LWF. In his address to that
Assembly, the Archbishop of Canterbury had made a
plea for greater cooperation between Anglicans
and Lutherans in the Middle East, and the
Commission met here to learn of the hopes and
cares of the two churches in Jerusalem in particular.

Bishop Suheil Dawani, the Anglican bishop, hosted
an ecumenical reception for local church leaders,
and the Commission was addressed by His Beatitude
Theophilos III, the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The Commission spent one of its sessions with
Bishop Dawani and Bishop Younan. At both this
session and at the reception, members of the
Commission heard of the struggles of Christians
in Jerusalem and Palestine: of the strain of
living a restricted life, of the lack of jobs and
opportunities particularly for young people, and
of lacking peace with justice for all in society,
all of which lead many Christians to leave the
holy land and diminish the witness of
Christianity in the very places of its birth. At
the same time, they heard of the dedication of
the local churches to be the hands and feet of
Christ: to advocate for a just peace among all,
to seek good relations among all the faith
communities, and to offer high quality education
and health care to the whole society.

Members of the Commission had the opportunity to
learn of some of this work firsthand when they
visited the Princess Basma Centre and the Augusta
Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives, and Dar
al-Kalima College and the International Center of
Bethlehem. The focus of the work of the
Commission at this meeting was the writing of its
final report. Entitled ?To Love and Serve the
Lord?, the report focuses on the theme of
diakonia: the service and witness of the Church.
Many ecumenical agreements have examined
koinonia, the unity of the Church; this report
looks at the essential connection of koinonia
with diakonia. The report is addressed to the two
world Communions and their member churches, but
it is hoped that much of the material, rooted in
Scripture and including stories of diakonia in
action from around the world, will be of use to
parishes and congregations, and indeed to other
ecumenical partners, as they seek to deepen their
commitment to discipleship in witness and service.
Present at the meeting were:

> Anglicans:

The Most Revd Fred Hiltz, Canada (Co-Chair)

The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Methuen, Germany and United Kingdom
The Rt Revd Dr Musonda T. S. Mwamba, Botswana
The Revd Professor Renta Nishihara, Japan
The Very Revd Dr William H. Petersen, USA
The Revd Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan, Anglican
Communion Office (Co-Secretary)
Mr Neil Vigers (administrative assistant)
Apology
The Revd Dr Cathy Thomson, Australia

> Lutherans:

> Revd Dr Thomas Nyiwé, Cameroon (Co-Chair)
> Revd Angel Furlan, Argentina
> Revd Dr Cameron Harder, Canada
> Landesbischof emeritus Jürgen Johannesdotter, Germany
> Revd Dr Ndanganeni P. Phaswana, South Africa
> Revd Canon Helene Tärneberg Steed, Sweden and Ireland
> Professor Dr Kathryn Johnson, Lutheran World Federation (Co-Secretary)
> Apologies:
> Revd Professor Kirsten Busch Nielsen, Denmark
> Professor Dr Kenneth G. Appold, USA

Ecumenical Observer:

The Revd Professor Dr Günter Esser, the Old
Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, Germany

The Commission was established by the Anglican
Consultative Council and The Lutheran World
Federation to continue the dialogue between
Anglicans and Lutherans on the worldwide level
which has been in progress since 1970. ALIC has
built upon the work reflected in The Niagara
Report (1987), focusing on the mission of the
church and the role of the ordained ministry, The
Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), and
most recently Growth in Communion (2002), the
report of the Anglican?Lutheran International
Working Group, which reviewed the extensive
regional agreements which have established close
relations between Anglican and Lutheran churches in several parts of the wo rld.