wfn.org | Message of peace, bearing one another's burden

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

Televised worship service during LWF Council meeting
Press Release No. 10/99

BRATISLAVA, Slovak Republic, 27 June 1999 (lwi) - During a worship
service broadcast live on Slovak Television from the Evangelical Church
of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic (ECAV) "Velky Kostol"
(main church) here, the president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Bishop Christian Krause reminded Christians of their challenging
responsibility in ensuring that "we belong together" and "bear one
another's burden".

The LWF president told worshipers who included participants in the LWF
Council meeting taking place here from 22 to 29 June that because of
God's own sharing, comfort and forgiveness, each person can face
carrying the other's burden without breaking down. By obeying Jesus
Christ's commandment of love, Christians create togetherness instead of
marginalization and war. The representative of the Bishops' Conference
of the Roman Catholic Church in the Slovak Republic, Bishop Franci*ek
Tondra was among those who attended the morning worship.

During the well attended morning service, Krause, who is also bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Germany, gave the example
of the new togetherness between the Lutheran and Roman Catholic
churches, thanks to their intensive dialogue on the Joint Declaration on
the Doctrine of Justification. Mutual condemnations are being lifted and
the foundation laid for more fellowship.

He likened the forthcoming signing of the Joint Declaration on 31
October 1999 in Augsburg, Germany by the LWF and the Vatican to the
rebuilding of a bridge in the very place where it broke down 469 years
ago. It is remarkable how in the newly found freedom, in the
predominantly Roman Catholic Slovakia, the name of the church   Augsburg
Confession   is a reminder of the venue where the Lutherans and
Catholics will proceed to an "Augsburg" confessing the sole saving power
of God's grace.

The Brunswick bishop said meeting in Bratislava is historic in that
nobody would have imagined ten years ago that such an encounter would
have been possible. "Bratislava was part of the Eastern bloc....Now you
dear sisters and brothers have returned to the center of Europe, and we
are grateful for that."  He described the precious gift of communion
worldwide as a fragile task which calls for joint responsibility so that
it can be preserved and developed.

Recalling the unity recovered in Europe as well as post-apartheid South
Africa and more recently the reconstruction in Kosovo, Krause wondered
how reconciliation can be fostered between the  unreconciled people in
different parts of the world. Reconciliation can be found in communion
which is only possible if it involves sharing and forgiving solidarity,
he added.

The LWF general secretary, Dr. Ishmael Noko, in brief remarks at the
beginning of the worship service noted that diversity is a gift from
God. "We are mindful of the diversity which is a gift from God as we
worship together with our brothers and sisters in the common faith we
share in Christ."

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/