wfn.org | Study program on China to be discontinued, new emphases sought

[FRANK.IMHOFF@ecunet.org]

LWF COUNCIL MEETING, TURKU, FINLAND, 14-21 JUNE 2000
PRESS RELEASE NO. 13

TURKU, Finland/GENEVA, 20 June 2000 (LWI) - The China Study Program will
not be continued as a defined program of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) Department for Theology and Studies (DTS), and donors will be
encouraged to support new emphases growing out of this program.

This was the recommendation taken by the Council of the LWF at its
meeting in Turku, Finland from 14 to 21 June, after hearing proposals
from the Program Committee for Theology and Studies.

Presenting the key issues that emerged from the committee's
deliberations on the work of the DTS since the 1999 Council meeting, the
chairperson Dr. Joachim Track pointed out that activities and interests
seem to have waned in the China program which was initiated in 1994.

The program was especially important in the process of preparing for the
Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong, China in 1997. Track told the Council at a
plenary session on 19 June that the only active project of the initial
program is "Protestant Church Growth in China: How did it happen?"

In the report of the general secretary to the Council in 1999, it was
noted that difficulties in maintaining a free flow of information had
hindered the development of this program, and cooperation with the China
Christian Council had not always been easy.

In Turku Track told the Council that discussions in the program
committee this year revolved mainly around the president's reference to
a new ecumenical theology. In his address to the LWF Council meeting the
Federation's president Bishop Dr. Christian Krause emphasized the need
for "a communication strategy that takes account of the increasing
bilateral and multilateral situation and of the new challenges to
ecumenical theology."

Other concerns deliberated in the DTS program committee included ways in
which the department and the Ecumenical Institute in Strasbourg can
cooperate so that each can have an influence on what the other does. It
was noted in the committee that collaboration should enhance and not
diminish the role of each partner.

The committee discussed also the "Guiding Principles for Sustainable
Development", a document that outlines principles that are understood by
the LWF to guide its work in sustainable development; as well as the
focus of the DTS in its four study desks namely Church and Social
Issues, Church and People of Other Faiths, Theology and the Church and
Worship and Congregational Life.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 59 million of the world's 63 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 (LWI) 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
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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
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