wfn.org | Significance of opening of last Holy Door

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

LWF President's emphasis on "churches together"

VATICAN/GENEVA, 24 January 2000 (lwi) - "We start the new millennium not as
opponents but as a community of churches." These were the remarks the
President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Bishop Dr. Christian
Krause used to describe the ecumenical worship service in the Basilica of
St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Krause said the occasion, which also marked the opening of the Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity, was a "symbolic act" that expresses that the
churches are "together on the journey following Jesus."

Pope John Paul II had invited church representatives from all over the
world to the 18 January worship service during which, together with the
Head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey,
and the Orthodox Metropolitan Athanasios of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople, the pontiff opened the "Holy Door" of the Basilica of St.
Paul Outside the Walls. Approximately 12,000 faithful participated in the
service, while several thousand people stood outside the Basilica.

Krause, who is also the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Brunswick, Germany, said that the Pope deserved recognition for having
assembled the historical churches.

In a word of greeting, Metropolitan Athanasios linked the opening of the
"Holy Door" to the hope for a new era of relations between the churches.
Participants in the service included high-ranking representatives from the
Anglican Church, all Orthodox churches (except the Bulgarian and Georgian
Orthodox churches), Lutheran churches worldwide, and the Methodist churches.

The opening of the "Holy Door" in St. Paul's served, according to the Papal
Bull "Incarnationis mysterium", to reflect on Christ. The Bull says: "Jesus
said: 'I am the door' (Jn 10:7), in order to make it clear that no one can
come to the father except through him. (*) There is only one way that opens
wide the entrance into the life of communion with God: this is Jesus, the
one and absolute way to salvation". The worship service centered wholly on
Christ in both proclamation and liturgy. This was also expressed through
one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings on the church as the body of Jesus
Christ that was read in German by the Swedish Lutheran bishop, Jonas Jonson.

The German question as to whether this event was related to the indulgence
was neither an issue during the service nor among the other church
representatives. The LWF President repeatedly pointed out to, among others,
the Vatican's Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, that the churches, in general, need to show more
ecumenical sensitivity and should always consider the consequences of their
actions for the other churches.

Furthermore, Bishop Krause, during his encounters with representatives of
the Roman Catholic Church, emphasized that, for him, the establishment of
Eucharistic fellowship is not a distant goal. In view of the Ecumenical
Church Convention planned for the year 2003 in Berlin, Krause said that
"our task is to push the community of both churches as far as possible
until that time."

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 59 million of the world's 63.1 million Lutherans. Its highest
decision-making body is the Assem-bly, held every six or seven years.
Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council, which meets
annually, and by its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat is lo-cated
in Geneva, Switzerland.)

(This article was written by Udo Hahn, the LWF German National Committee
Press Officer)

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