wfn.org | ELCA Bishop Will Sign Lutheran-Roman Catholic "Joint Declaration"

[NEWS <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

July 6, 1999

ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP WILL SIGN LUTHERAN-ROMAN CATHOLIC "JOINT DECLARATION"
99-26-175-LS

     BRATISLAVA, Slovak Republic (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. George Anderson,
presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
and a vice president for Lutheran World Federation (LWF), will be one of
the signers of the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification"
on behalf of LWF said Bishop Christian Krause of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Brunswick (Germany), LWF president, in a June 29
announcement.
     Eight persons, seven Lutherans and one Roman Catholic, will sign
the document on Oct. 31 in Augsburg, Germany.  Signers include Anderson;
Dr. Ishmael Noko, LWF General Secretary; Bishop Julius Filo, Evangelical
Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic; Parmata
Ishaya, Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria; President Huberto
Kirchheim, Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil; the
Rev. Dr. Prasanna Kumari, Arcot Lutheran Church, India; and Vatican
representative Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, President for the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
     The Joint Declaration is the result of more than three decades of
dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics.  This is the first time
such a declaration has been recognized between the two churches.
Anderson chaired the Lutheran group that worked with Roman Catholics in
the United States toward a document of agreement in the 1970s and 1980s.
     Krause said the eight people who will sign the Joint Declaration
include "men and women, lay and ordained" who "will underline the global
communion aspect of the federation."
     The declaration states a belief about the way people become
"justified," or right with God.  Jesus Christ won salvation through his
life, death and resurrection; salvation is a gift that no one but Jesus
Christ can earn, says the declaration.
     "Together we confess: by grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving
work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God
and receive the Holy Spirit," it says.
     The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70
countries representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans.
The LWF's highest decision-making body is the Assembly, held every six
or seven years.  Between Assemblies the LWF is governed by a 49-member
council which meets annually, and its Executive Committee.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html