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News from the Evalgelical Lutheran Church in America

May 21, 1996

LUTHERAN-CATHOLIC AGREEMENT

The Roman Catholic Church and the churches of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) will come to
agreement on the same issue that divided the churches in
the 16th century.  That is the conclusion of the
Lutheran-Roman Catholic Coordinating Committee which
met April 26-28 in St. Louis to review the proposed "Joint
Declaration on Justification by Faith."  The U.S. Catholic
Conference and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) assembled the committee to coordinate
the U.S. response to international drafts of the declaration.
 The final version of the declaration is expected to be
published this summer.  Lutherans and Catholics have
been in dialogue in the United States for more than 25
years and influenced international resolve on the issue in
1983 when they issued "Justification by Faith."  The
proposed joint declaration will be considered by the
Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
and the assembly of LWF churches to be held July 7-17,
1997, in Hong Kong.  LWF is a Geneva-based
communion of 56 million Lutherans in 122 member church
bodies in 68 countries.  There are about 60 million
Lutherans worldwide.  The 5.2-million member ELCA is
the second largest LWF member, after The Church of
Sweden.

[ELCA News and Information: 8765 W. Higgins Road,
Chicago, IL   60631; phone 312/380-2963]