wfn.org | LWF President calls grace 'the supreme form of justice'

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

LWF COUNCIL
Press Release No. 01/98

LWF President calls grace  the supreme form of justice'

GENEVA, 8 June 1998 (lwi) - The message of justification is not only a
theological concept, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) President Christian
Krause told members of the LWF Council, but it also has a social dimension.
"The supreme form of justice is grace," he said in his presidential address
at the beginning of the new council s meeting here June 8-17.

Krause, who is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, tied
together the debate on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification with the Roman Catholic Church and social concerns he
encountered in recent visits to Latin America and the Middle East. The LWF
Council is expected to vote on acceptance of the Joint Declaration next
week after studying the responses of LWF member churches.

In light of the justice questions raised during his visits as president of
the LWF, he noted the problems of "civil wars and profound political,
social and economic ruptures. ... As churches we must bring our own hope to
bear against hopelessness, our own solidarity against the destruction and
division of human beings and humanity, and our own understanding of
worldwide communion in the body of Christ against the brutal globalization
of the market."

At a press conference afterward Krause cited the Jubilee 2000 proposal,
which would use the occasion of the millennium year 2000 as a "year of
grace." He said this concept is supported in both the Old and New
Testaments. Through this grace countries struggling with debt can be
forgiven their debts.

He said Christ s parables teach us that "God has mercy on the guilty and
the indebted." Luther, when "in despair under the cross of his fear and his
lostness" discovered grace as the supreme form of justice. He warned that
unless hopelessness can be overcome, "it is the soil that nourishes
radicalism and fundamentalism."

Krause noted that Luther did not intend to create a division of the church
"but rather a reform of his Catholic Church in the light of the Gospel."
The LWF president said the Lutheran concept of "reconciled diversity" is a
consequence of the theology of justification. He urged the major
confessional bodies, such as Orthodox, Methodist, Baptist, Reformed,
Lutheran and Catholic, to work together now as a "worldwide community of
communities ... in particular after the long and often devious ways in
which our churches came into existence." He said that "as the historical
churches are faced with growing religious and Christian movements, and
cannot relax in a self-satisfied way, they depend on dialogue to prepare
the ground for broader cooperation. The Joint Declaration offers the
opportunity of taking up the dialogue at the precise point where the
rupture took place during the Reformation to see where we can come closer
today."

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of Lutheran
churches. Founded in Lund, Sweden, in 1947, the LWF now has 124 member
churches in 69 countries representing over 57 million of the world s 61
million Lutherans. The LWF headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

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