wfn.org | Lutheran World Federation Welcomes Decision of The ELCA

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

LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION WELCOMES DECISION OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN
CHURCH IN AMERICA TO ENTER INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE MORAVIAN CHURCH
IN AMERICA AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

GENEVA, 20 August 1999 (lwi) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
General Secretary Dr Ishmael Noko, has welcomed the decision of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly to
enter into full communion with the Moravian Church in America and The
Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.

Noko who is currently in Denver for the ELCA assembly, says these
decisions come as a positive follow up to the resolution passed by the
ELCA Assembly two years ago establishing full communion with the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America and the
United Church of Christ.

With these votes, Noko says, the ELCA, the second largest Lutheran
church in the world with over 5 million members, places itself squarely
where it belongs in the network of Christian churches. It is of great
ecumenical significance in the global context that the ELCA demonstrates
the readiness of Lutherans to establish church relations simultaneously
in several directions, Noko says.

The LWF general secretary says he sees the decision by the ELCA as
exemplifying an ecumenical calling for churches in the Lutheran
communion at the present time to be able to establish full communion in
various ways, in different parts of the world, both with churches that
have maintained the so-called "historic episcopate" and with churches
that have not. For Lutherans, the "historic episcopate" is not a
theological necessity, but it can be accepted freely as one sign of
unity in the church.

The ecumenical dialogues and efforts in which the ELCA has been active
over many years have been, and will continue to be, of great value for
the worldwide fellowship of Lutheran churches represented by the LWF,
Noko says.

He congratulates the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, the Rev. H. George
Anderson, on this significant development toward which he, together with
his colleagues, has worked for a long time with wisdom and fairness.

 (The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
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. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented
does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (lwi), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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