wfn.org | News in brief

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

 ... Noko discusses border dispute with presidents of Namibia, Botswana.
Dr. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
visited Namibia and Botswana last month to discuss the current border
dispute, increasing tensions between the two countries, and the role the
churches might play in reducing those tensions. Invited to Namibia by Dr.
Sam Nujoma, Namibia's president, with whom he met Feb. 20, Noko also raised
issues related to the reconciliation process in Namibia including: ex-SWAPO
detainees, the churches' continuing role in that process, and the
implementation of land reform. In Gaborone, Noko met with President
Ketumile Masire of Botswana, Feb. 21. They discussed proposals related to
church initiatives in both countries aimed at reducing the cross-border
tensions.

 ... New LWF all-staff electronic mail address. The E-mail address of LWF
staff has changed to @lutheranworld.org (previously: @lutheranworld.org). Each
staff person's initials should precede the address. For example: John
Anderson's address would be: ja@lutheranworld.org. Until further notice,
LWF staff may be reached via both the old and new E-mail addresses.

 ... Work resumes on LWF website   http://www.lutheranworld.org. After a
break, due to technical and administrative reasons, work on the LWF website
has been resumed. An updated homepage soon will be available under the
address: http://www.lutheranworld.org.The website was installed last year,
originally to provide and update information prior to and during the LWF
Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong. Current issues of Lutheran World Information,
introductory material to the LWF in four languages (English, German,
Spanish and French), and the text of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine
of Justification initially will be accessible. Interactive discussion
forums and preparatory meetings also are being set up for the international
conference on "Justification in the world's contexts" to be held at the end
of October in Wittenberg, Germany.

 ... Lutheran church in Peru celebrates 100th anniversary. The Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Peru celebrated its 100th anniversary, March 6. In a
greeting, Rolf Koppe, "bishop in charge of work abroad" of the Evangelical
Church in Germany (EKD), acknowledged, in particular, the Lima German-speaking
congregation's outstanding social work. Its social services "Casa
Belen" for the care of poor children, and "Diaconia", he said, very
effectively build bridges to needy people. Koppe also commended their good
cooperation with the EKD. The church was founded by traders and immigrants
in 1898. The first Protestant pastor from Germany arrived in 1899. Today,
the church welcomes 1,200 members. The German-speaking congregation in
Lima, served by an EKD pastor, has 285 members. A Spanish-speaking branch
became autonomous in 1990.

 ... Former Church of Sweden Mission director to teach in Hong Kong.
Birgitta Larsson, former director of the Church of Sweden Mission has
resigned from her position with the Church of Sweden's Department for
International Mission, Diakonia and Ecumenism in Uppsala. She will move to
Hong Kong with her husband, Rev. Per Larsson, and teach at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary there.

 ... New Testament scholar Ernst Kasemann dies at 91. Theologian Ernst
Kasemann died Feb. 17, in a Tubingen hospital, aged 91. He is considered to
be one of the most significant New Testament scholars of the postwar period
and one of the last "angry old men" of the Confessing Church. Born in 1906
in Dahlhausen, Westphalia, he obtained his doctorate in 1931 under Marburg
professor, Rudolf Bultmann. When he was a miners' chaplain in Gelsenhausen,
he joined the Confessing Church but left it again believing it to be too
ready to compromise. Arrested several times by the National Socialists, he
wrote his inaugural dissertation, "Das wandernde Gottesvolk" [The People of
God on the Move] while in prison. From 1946 until his retirement in 1971
Kasemann taught New Testament in Mainz, Gottingen and Tubingen.

 ... Two Protestant magazines in Germany to merge. Two Protestant
magazines, one in western and one in eastern Germany plan to combine.
Lutherische Monatshefte in Hanover and Die Zeichen der Zeit in Leipzig want
to merge this year, Helmut Kremers, editor-in-chief of Lutherische
Monatshefte, has announced. Die Zeichen der Zeit, published six times a
year, has existed since 1947. Lutherische Monatshefte has been published
since 1962. Both are circulated by the United Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Germany (VELKD).

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