wfn.org | Lutheran Pastor Underlines Diversity, Discernment and Diaconia

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

Canadian Lutheran Pastor Underlines Diversity, Discernment and
Diaconia as Standards of the Church
The Healing of the Church is about Justice and Inclusion,
Theologian David Pfrimmer Tells LWF Youth Pre-Assembly

GUELPH, Canada/GENEVA, 16 July 2003 (LWI) - Canadian theologian
Dr David Pfrimmer has urged Lutheran churches to welcome and
promote diversity, make effort to discern the "signs of the
times" and to involve themselves even more in diaconia, in social
ministry to their neighbors.

A watchful, awake and open church must be a "3-D church," - one
that makes diversity, discernment and diaconia its standards,
pastor Pfrimmer emphasized in his keynote speech titled "For the
Healing of the Church - Remembering Who We Are," at the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) Pre-Assembly Youth Conference, taking
place July 12-18 in Guelph, Canada.

Healing the church has to do with being changed by God and not by
the world, said Pfrimmer, director of the Lutheran Office for
Public Policy, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). It
also means that Lutherans must remember and rediscover anew who
they are, he continued; it is this that will make them able, with
the help of the Holy Spirit, to bring healing and change to the
world which God so loves. The theme of healing the church is
about justice and inclusion, he noted.

To say yes to diversity and to promote it, we must become aware
of our own roots, according to Pfrimmer; confrontations with many
different cultures, various confessions and people of differing
origins help to deepen our self-understanding as well as our
understanding of others. He pointed out that ecumenical and inter
religious dialogues have helped the Lutheran church in Canada to
strengthen its own theology and also contributed to a powerful
common witness to the unity of the church.

With regard to discerning the signs of the times, he emphasized
that what one sees always depends on one's personal views;
therefore it is urgently necessary for Christians to take their
stand in those places where human beings are suffering, where the
creation is suffering. Seeing the world up close compels us to
ask the difficult questions, he said; discernment means asking
about justice in our world, about how peace can be created.
Pfrimmer sees discernment as a process by which people diagnose
what is happening and begin to understand the dynamics of the
world.

As the central element of what it means to be Christian and what
it means to be Church, Pfrimmer named diaconia, as unconditional
ministry to one's neighbor. Fundamentally, he said, diaconia is
about introducing an ethic of inclusion; it inevitably means
working for social change and it means struggling for justice. He
pointed out that getting involved in diaconia puts people into
confrontation with situations and encounters with people where
the church can hear again the Gospel. Diaconia, for Pfrimmer,
recognizes a "preferential attentiveness" the church must give to
marginalized people; the Gospel, he said, is most often visible
at the margins of society.

About 90 youth delegates and stewards from 54 countries are
taking part in the Youth Pre-Assembly Conference. It is the last
of seven consultations in preparation for the Tenth LWF Assembly,
which have been studying the themes and content of the July 21-31
Assembly from the viewpoints of the different regions and from
the perspective of women and youth. "For the Healing of the
World" is the theme of the Assembly, being hosted by the ELCIC.

The full text of Rev. Dr. David Pfrimmer's speech is available in
English on the Assembly Web site at
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/lwfimages/Healing_of_the_Church_Pfrimmer.pdf

(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 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith 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 LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where
the dateline of a article contains the notation (LWI), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.

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