wfn.org | Victorian and Tasmanian Lutherans join ecumenical body

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

Call for football-free Good Friday

HAMILTON, Vic., Australia/GENEVA, 2 November 1998 (lwi) - Lutherans in
Victoria, Australia, took the historic decision at their recent state
convention to join the Victorian Council of Churches (VCC), a move warmly
welcomed by the VCC.

The 1998 biennial Lutheran State Convention was held at the Lutheran
complex in Hamilton, in western Victoria, from October 11 to 13. Some 200
delegates from Victorian and Tasmanian parishes considered a range of
issues under the theme "Living confidently." Visitors included national
president, Lance Steicke.

Decades of separation from other mainstream denominations came to an end
when the convention voted overwhelmingly to join the VCC, commented Alan
Austin of the Victorian District of the Lutheran church.

In a decisive three to one vote, delegates reversed the decision taken just
two years earlier to maintain observer status, the position which had
prevailed for the previous 10 years. The new stance follows the decision in
September last year by the National Synod of the Lutheran Church of
Australia to join the National Council of Churches.

In his convention report, President David Stolz acknowledged that "for
various confessional, historical and geographical reasons, the Lutheran
Church of Australia has existed in isolation from most of the other
Lutheran churches around the world and from other Christian churches at
home and abroad."

Stolz then observed that this isolationist stance has been changing, and he
called for closer relations with other churches. This was despite his
experience of ecumenism which, he said, "has not always been enjoyable. Far
from it!"

"Often I find it painful, sometimes fearful but always challenging. It
challenges my identity as a Lutheran Christian," Stolz said. "It challenges
me to sort out confessed truth, on the basis of God's word, from tradition
and prejudice."

All Lutheran state conventions except that of New South Wales have now
joined ecumenical councils.

VCC head, Hamish Christie-Johnston, warmly welcomed the vote. "We are very
pleased that the Convention has made this decision," he said. "As General
Secretary I look forward with confidence to informing the other member
churches and to receiving the Lutheran Church into full membership next
March."

Unanimous call for sport-free Good Friday

With the state convention's clear vote to lobby Victorian Premier Jeff
Kennett on the issue of designating Good Friday as a day free of major
sport and commerce, pressure intensified. This follows recent failed
attempts by joint church approaches to Kennett urging him to designate Good
Friday and Easter Day, along with Christmas Day, as free from sport.

It was resolved unanimously that the convention "urge the Victorian
government to ensure the sacred nature of the universal Christian holy day
of Good Friday by freeing it of sporting and commercial activities."

Direct lobbying of Australian Football League (AFL) chief, Wayne Jackson,
was urged when a motion was passed - also unanimously - calling on
congregations and members "to lodge their strong objection to the
arrangement of AFL games on Good Friday directly to the Executive Manager
of the AFL."

President reappointed for record term

David Stolz is now the longest-serving church leader in Victoria and one of
the longest-serving leaders in Australia, following the vote to reappoint
him as state president for another four-year term. This follows three
successful terms as president for Victoria and Tasmania, totalling more
than ten years.

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