wfn.org | ELCA Participates in National Workshop on Christian Unity

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEF

April 24, 1996

NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON CHRISTIAN UNITY

Ecumenical representatives and other interested members of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be among the hundreds
attending the 1996 National Workshop on Christian Unity May 6-9
in Richmond, Va.  The Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives
Network, with members from each of the ELCA's 65 synods, will
hold its annual meeting during the conference.  A special plenary
seminar will examine three ecumenical proposals on which the ELCA
will vote in 1997: to establish full communion with the Episcopal
Church; to establish full communion with three Reformed churches
-- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and
United Church of Christ -- and to declare that 16th-century
condemnations of the Roman Catholic Church on the doctrine of
justification no longer apply.  Speakers will include Dr. Michael
Root, an ELCA layman and director of the Institute for Ecumenical
Research in Strasbourg, France.  The National Workshop on
Christian Unity is sponsored by the National Ecumenical Officers
Association.  The ELCA is one of several bodies involved,
including: American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), Episcopal Church, National Council of
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches, United Church of Christ and
United Methodist Church.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956