wfn.org | North Elbian church takes positive stand on Joint Declaration

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Important step toward improved ecumenical relations

RENDSBURG, Germany/GENEVA, Feb. 19, 1998 (lwi) - With an overwhelming
majority the synod of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church (NEK)
adopted the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" between
Lutherans and Catholics at its meeting in Rendsburg Feb. 7. According to a
NEK press release, the church leadership and bishops stand behind this
decision.

The decision refers to the Joint Declaration as a "good basis for further
ecumenical work" and an "important step toward deepened church fellowship".
It welcomes the fact that the central concern of the message, the Doctrine
of Justification, has become "a subject of ecumenical understanding".
Notwithstanding the fundamental agreement, the decision states that: "The
'Joint Declaration' needs to be interpreted in the light of the Evangelical
Lutheran Confessions. The condemnations in the Confessions do not apply to
the Roman Catholic teaching on justification as presented in the 'Joint
Declaration'".

The North Elbian church voiced the expectation that the Joint Declaration
would have concrete consequences for ordinary ecumenical life locally and
"pave the way for deeper community in Word, sacraments and service".
Congregations, services and agencies are recommended "jointly with Catholic
Christians and in ecumenical openness to pass on the significance of the
message of justification for our times".

Only a few days before the North Elbian Synod's decision, over 140
professors of theology from all parts of Germany had warned against
adopting the Joint Declaration. The synod paid attention to their
statement, another decision notes. It considers it to be the "expression of
legitimate common concern for the teaching and confession of our church".
The synod has taken a position on the Joint Declaration based on its own
responsibility and perspective --"not least in the awareness that account
is being taken of justified concerns".

Presiding Bishop Horst Hirschler defends Joint Declaration
Just a few days earlier, presiding bishop of the United Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD), Landesbischof Horst Hirschler,
responded with explicit criticism to the university professors' statement.

In a Feb. 5 letter to the signatories, he writes: "I find it
incomprehensible why you do not mention that your critique includes points
that have long been formulated and included in the recommendations on the
decision given to the Lutheran churches. In the course of intensive
consultations among representatives of the Lutheran churches in Germany and
of the universities' theological faculties, it was proposed to the churches
to give a qualified 'yes' to the Joint Declaration while clearly
identifying the critical points."

Hirschler, who chairs the German National Committee of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), also objected that no understanding for ecumenical texts
could be detected in the counterstatement. Even though the joint sentences
of the declaration do not explicitly refer to the Lutheran formula that
justification of human being takes place "by faith alone", it is implicit
in other formulations, he said.

The bishop emphatically criticized the professors' claim that the Joint
Declaration was an indication of a secret program aiming at "integration of
the Protestant clergy into the Roman Catholic hierarchy". "This is
grotesque. This is nothing but projected mistrust," the former LWF
vice-president said.

Hirschler acknowledged, though, that the theology professors had left the
possibility open for the churches to say a qualified 'yes' to the
declaration, and, as a positive conclusion, wondered whether the present
heated discussion could perhaps be a "ruse of the Holy Spirit" to bring the
main article of the Christian faith, the Doctrine of Justification, more
into focus.

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@wcc-coe.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/