wfn.org | First meeting of the Anglican-Lutheran International Working Group

["News News" <NEWS@elca.org>]

Participants discuss related ecumenical developments

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, U. S. A./GENEVA, 7 March 2000 (lwi) - The first
meeting of the Anglican - Lutheran International Working Group took
place from 12 - 16 February 2000 at the Virginia Theological Seminary
with a focus on the various developments in the relations between the
two worldwide Christian communions.

Established in 1998 by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the
Anglican Communion, the working group, which comprises 13 members -
seven Anglicans and six Lutherans - aims to continue the formal contact
between the two communions, which dates back in varying forms to 1970.

The group's mandate involves monitoring the development and progress in
Anglican - Lutheran relations in the various regions of the world and
assessing the significance of the regional developments for the
furthering of relationships between the two worldwide Christian
communions.

At the February meeting, participants identified several key concerns
and practice in the life of the communions and their ecumenical
relations calling for further examination. They also began to clarify
and assess such issues.

The working group, presently co-chaired by Anglican Bishop David Tustin
(England) and Lutheran Bishop Ambrose Moyo (Zimbabwe), is expected to
carry out its work over a three-year period, after which a final report
will be submitted to their respective governing bodies.

The 1997 LWF Assembly and the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in
1998 both expressed their support for the developments toward agreements
of church fellowship on the regional and national level - those achieved
and those in progress - between Anglican and Lutheran churches. They
also affirmed the commitment of the two communions to continue and
further their bilateral ecumenical relations.

On the national and regional levels, Anglican and Lutheran churches have
for several years moved toward different, binding forms of church
fellowship, stemming from agreements such as the Meissen Common
Statement (1988) between the Church of England and the Evangelical
Church of Germany (EKD), the Porvoo Common Statement (1996) between the
British and Irish Anglican Churches and most of the Nordic and Baltic
Lutheran churches, and the Reuilly Common Statement (1999) between the
British and Irish Anglican Churches and the French Lutheran and Reformed
Churches.

Prominent among reports produced by the Anglican - Lutheran dialogue are
The Niagara Report (1987), focusing on the mission of the church and the
role of the ordained ministry, and The Diaconate as an Ecumenical
Opportunity (1995). The working group will examine whether the full
Anglican-Lutheran International Commission (A-LIC) should be restarted.

The LWF presently has 128 member churches in 70 countries representing
59.5 million of the world's 63.1 million Lutherans. There are nearly 70
million members of the Anglican family in 37 self-governing Member
Churches or Provinces in more than 160 countries.

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