wfn.org | Hanover Synod Backs Efforts to Restructure German Protestant Church

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

VELKD's Dissolution Could Impact Negatively on Churches'
International Relations

HANOVER, Germany/GENEVA, 5 July 2002 (LWI/epd) - The synod of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover supports efforts towards
reform and strengthening of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD).

But it calls for structures that would in the future allow for
effective presentation of a "Lutheran image," according to a
resolution adopted by a majority of delegates to the church's June
meeting in Hanover.

Synod members of Germany's largest regional church called for an
assessment of the tasks and accomplishments of the current
confessional bodies in Germany, such as the United Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD). The reformers want to dissolve
the VELKD and the corresponding United and Reformed churches' unions
within the EKD in order to strengthen the EKD. Eckhart von
Vietinghoff, president of the Hanover church secretariat, complained
of the "indescribable tendency towards fragmentation in
Protestantism."

Vietinghoff, who opened the public debate with specific reform
proposals last January, spoke to the synod in favor of a strong EKD.
The confessions could organize themselves within it, as three equal
"sections" or conventions. He strongly rejected the model of a
Lutheran EKD "of the Augsburg Confession," with United and Reformed
divisions. "We must avoid giving the impression that one confession
has authority over the others," he said.

This model had been recommended to the synod by former Hanover
bishop, Rev. Horst Hirschler. According to Hirschler, the VELKD's
dissolution would be a heavy set-back for the churches' international
relations among other areas of work, because the EKD lacks
confessional distinctiveness. Only when the Lutheran "Augsburg
Confession" was embraced by the whole EKD could the VELKD be
considered superfluous, he said.

The VELKD includes 10.6 million members representing eight
churches-namely the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Bavaria,
Brunswick, Thuringia, of Hanover, Mecklenburg, Saxony,
Schaumburg-Lippe and the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The EKD brings together 24 Lutheran, Reformed and United regional
churches in Germany.

(An epd - Evangelischer Pressedienst contribution)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
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member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5 million of the
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member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development
work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

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