wfn.org | News in brief

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

 ... Reformation visit to Slovenia. The president of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), Christian Krause, visited the Evangelical Church of the
Augsburg Confession in Slovenia (ECACS) from October 29 to November 2. The
program included a public celebration in Cankajev Cathedral in Ljubljana, a
televised worship service and a reception hosted by state President Milan
Kucan. The ECACS has 19,500 members and is an LWF member church. It invited
Krause to share in the national holiday in Slovenia on the occasion of
Reformation Day.

 ... Autumn conference in Ratzeburg. "World Trade and World Salvation" was
the theme of this year's autumn conference of the Luther Academy in
Ratzeburg, Germany. Traditionally, this gathering is noted for strong
leadership and participation from Scandinavian and Baltic countries. The
purpose of the Luther Academy in Ratzeburg is scholarly research on the
Lutheran Reformation. It fosters Lutheran and ecumenical relationships
particularly among the Nordic countries.

 ... Bread for the World is 40 years old. The German aid organization is
celebrating its anniversary with a campaign against exploitation of child
labor. "Give Children a Chance" is the theme of this year's fund drive, to
be launched on Sunday, November 29, in Stuttgart, Germany. Among
participants in the launch will be the LWF general secretary, Ishmael Noko,
the former German president, Richard von Weizsacker, and the president of
the German Diakonisches Werk, Jurgen Gohde, as well as political
representatives.

 ... Jurgen Haustein, new director of the Protestant Federation. Jurgen
Haustein, 41, was elected director of the Central Executive Committee of
the Protestant Federation (Evangelischer Bund) as well as director of its
Institute for Interconfessional Research in Bensheim, Germany. He will
succeed retiring director Reinhard Frieling on July 1, 1999. Haustein is
presently secretary for Fundamental Theology and Modern Church History at
the Institute for Interconfessional Research, and also lectures at the
University of Kiel, Germany.

 ... "More humanity" competition. The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD)
and the Association of Protestant Free Churches in Germany (VEF) have
declared their opposition to "making social and diaconal work purely
economic activities." Those in need of help "should not be demoted to mere
'customers,' help and loving care for the needy should not be converted to
mere 'brand name goods,'" they protest in a diaconal memorandum published
in mid-October with the title "Hearts and Lips, Deeds and Lives." Help for
people in need cannot be limited to that which "pays," the churches insist.
The social competition which the churches expressly endorse must be a
"competition for more humanity" in providing good assistance to the needy.
Diaconal work must also include support for "responsible design of
community life characterized by solidarity" and "speaking out against loss
of solidarity and erosion of social safeguards in state and society, and
against the bureaucratization and distance from real life of the system,"
the memo says.

 ... General Secretary of the Martin-Luther-Bund installed. Rainer Stahl,
who has been serving since July as general secretary of the German diaspora
charity Martin-Luther-Bund (Martin Luther Federation), was formally
installed on 16 October in Erlangen, Germany. Stahl was formally personal
secretary to the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia,
Germany, Roland Hoffmann. He succeeds the late Peter Schellenberg.

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