wfn.org | LWI News in Brief October 2002

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

North American Churches to Host Delegates in LWF Pre and Post-Assembly
Visitation Program

North American Lutheran Churches will be heavily involved in the Tenth
Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) taking place in Winnipeg,
Canada, 21-31 July 2003. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC)
will host the assembly. Prior to and after the assembly, the ELCIC and
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will also host visitors and
delegates as part of the LWF 2003 Pre and Post-Assembly Visitation Program.
ELCIC will be responsible for the pre-assembly visitation program, taking
place in Canada, July 14-20 and the ELCA will host the post-assembly
program
from 1-10 August 2003. (ELCANEWS)

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Commemorating Ten Years of Porvoo Covenant

After 10 years, the Porvoo unity declaration by British and Irish Anglican
churches and Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches continues to influence
ecumenical developments worldwide, says one of its authors, Dean John
Arnold.
A well known ecumenist who is soon to retire as the dean of Durham
Cathedral
in England, Arnold said that the Porvoo statement had helped similar
agreements in North America and also a unity covenant currently being
considered in England by the Methodist Church and (Anglican) Church of
England. "Porvoo is a communion of churches, not a composite
Anglican-Lutheran
church," Arnold said in an interview with the Geneva-based Ecumenical News
International (ENI). The agreement provides for full inter-communion
between
the churches, including the acceptance of one another's bishops, priests
and
decons without re-ordination. The Porvoo statement was agreed in October
1992
by representatives of the four Anglican churches of Britain and Ireland and
eight Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches after three years of discussions.
It
is named after the Finnish city of Porvoo in whose cathedral the
representatives celebrated Eucharist after reaching agreement on the final
text. Arnold spoke to ENI after returning from a commemoration in Finland
to
mark Porvoo's 10th anniversary. (ENI)

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LWF Youth Magazine * "Emerging Faith Communities * What do they look like?"

"Emerging Faith Communities * What do they look like?" is the title of the
current issue of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Youth Magazine. In the
editorial of the September 2002 (No. 48) issue, the Rev. Tita Valeriano,
Study
Secretary for Youth in Church and Society (YICAS), LWF Department for
Mission
and Development (DMD), notes that the present generation is affecting the
evolution of faith communities and churches. The feature articles in the
56-page publication do not attempt to prescribe a "ready-made" strategy or
give concrete advice for reaching out to young people; different contexts
have
different answers," Valeriano writes, inviting readers to discover these
faith
communities in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and
North
America. She underlines, "No matter what it looks like, the church remains
the
people of God, redeemed and continually being transformed." For further
information please contact Youth Magazine, YICAS-DMD, The Lutheran World
Federation, P. O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, Tel. +41-22 791
6437, Fax +41 22 791 6401, E-mail tv@lutheranworld.org

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France: Church President Marc Lienhard to Step Down in 2003

The Rev. Dr. Marc Lienhard, president of the Church of the Augsburg
Confession
of Alsace and Lorraine (ECAAL) in France since 1997, will leave this post
in
2003. This was announced at a meeting of the ECAAL's governing body early
October. The position of church presidet is "for life" but Lienhard, who
will
turn 68 in 2003 wishes to concentrate again on his work at the university.
He
is a former theology professor in Strasbourg. The 210,00-member ECAAL has
been
a Lutheran World Federation member church since 1947.

*      *      *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 136 member
churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7 million of the 65.4 mllion
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its 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.)

[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 (LWI), the material may be
freely
reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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