wfn.org | News in brief

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

 ... Lutheran World Relief invites Lutherans to fast for North Korea.
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has invited people concerned about the threat
of famine in North Korea to fast and pray next April 24-25. LWR president,
Kathryn Wolford, urges Lutherans and Lutheran congregations to join in the
"World Day of Fasting" which will begin at 7:00 p.m. US eastern time.
Supporters include a variety of US humanitarian, church and civic groups,
including Bread for the World, American Friends Service Committee, the
Christian Reformed Church, Mennonite Central Committee, US Committee for
UNICEF and United Way. Participants are urged to wear a green lapel ribbon,
organize vigils and rallies, support aid to North Koreans and fast.

 ... Olli-Pekka Lassila rejoins LWF executive staff as Area Secretary for
Europe. Rev. Dr. Olli-Pekka Lassila, executive secretary of the Ministry
for Finns Abroad, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, rejoined
the Geneva staff of the LWF in March. He succeeds Dr. Tibor Gorog who has
returned to service in The Lutheran Church in Hungary. Lassila was LWF
Assistant Area Secretary for Europe from 1991-1996.

 ... "Church and Theater" festival to take place in Hanover, Germany. A
first international "Church and Theater" festival will be held in Hanover
Oct. 21-25. The Media Center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover
(ELCH), the Church and Theater Association, and the Federal Association for
Drama and Theater (BAG Spiel & Theater) intend to invite church and other
theater groups to Hanover from home and abroad biannually. The aim is to
recall the origins of theater and rediscover the church through different
forms of theatrical activity, from classic scenic drama to dance and other
productions. A conference with representatives of religious festivals and
Christian theater organizations throughout Europe will take place
concurrently. ELCH Bishop D. Horst Hirschler who is also presiding bishop
of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany is a patron of the
festival.

 ... German bishops say social market economy must be held on to. A social
market economy   the balance between social welfare and a free market
economy   must be held on to despite increasing globalization, according to
the Lutheran bishops in Germany. But this is not what is happening said
presiding bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany
(VELKD), Horst Hirschler, meeting with journalists in Moritzburg, Saxony,
March 10. Failure of the tax reform is a "medium-sized disaster", he said.
The lack of morality regarding taxes of people who earn high salaries is a
sign, he added, that the state no longer is able to prevail. The economy,
the bishop said, increasingly controls all realms of life. It is an
"all-controlling quantity". If everything is left to market autonomy, the
"divine mandate of shaping the world " is cast aside. People must be
defined in terms other than that of their labor efficiency. The church
repeatedly has to point out that human dignity is "beyond work and
unemployment", he said. The bishops of the eight VELKD member churches
gathered for a five-day closed meeting in Moritzburg near Dresden, March 7,
to discuss the situation.

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