wfn.org | EKD Council Chairperson Wolfgang Huber Visits LWF in Geneva

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

EKD Council Chairperson Wolfgang Huber Visits LWF in Geneva
LWF General Secretary Noko Says LWF Is Becoming More Ecumenical

GENEVA, 24 September 2004 (LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is
becoming increasingly ecumenical, said LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr
Ishmael Noko during a meeting with Bishop Dr Wolfgang Huber, chairperson
of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

The LWF Council's decision at the beginning of September to accept the
Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN) as an LWF member church was
clear proof that the ecumenical landscape was changing, Noko said during
the September 22 meeting with Huber in Geneva.

Through the LWF, all the member churches are in pulpit and altar
fellowship with one another, the general secretary explained. Founded in
May 2004, the PCN has over 2.5 million Reformed church members. It is a
merger of the Netherlands Reformed Church, Reformed Churches in the
Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. The latter, with nearly 15,000 members, has been an LWF
member church since 1947.

In view of cooperation between the LWF and World Alliance of Reformed
Churches (WARC), Huber said it would send an important ecumenical signal
if the decision-making bodies of both organizations were to hold
meetings together in future. He said ongoing discussions between the two
world bodies in Geneva where they are headquartered, made him hopeful
that shared assemblies were becoming a more realistic option than ever
before. The LWF's increasingly ecumenical orientation and closer
cooperation between LWF and WARC were important steps in this direction,
said Huber, who was visiting the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for the
first time since his election as chairperson of the EKD Council in
November 2003.

"We are living in exciting ecumenical times," Huber remarked. He said
this was evident in the fact that significant ecumenical issues were
being addressed, pointing out that confronting critical questions as
opposed to avoiding them like in the past, was likely to lead to
successful results.

With regard to the discussions on restructuring the EKD, Huber said he
was convinced that new structures for cooperation between the EKD and
United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) would be in place
by 1 January 2007. He was convinced this was necessary in order to
strengthen their common witness, but underlined such changes would
depend on acceptance of the new structures by all EKD member churches.
The EKD includes 23 Lutheran, Reformed and United churches in Germany,
with a membership of over 26 million. 

During the discussions, Noko also referred to the decision of the July
2003 LWF Tenth Assembly to change the organization's name to "The
Lutheran World Federation - A Communion of Churches." The LWF now needs
to discern what this means for communion among the member churches, of
which there are currently 138, the general secretary said.

Noko reported that the Council meeting at the beginning of September
named four priorities for future LWF work: strengthening Lutheran
identity as a communion of churches in mission; deepening ecumenical
commitments and fostering interfaith relations; bearing witness in
church and society to God's healing, reconciliation and justice; and
enhancing communication, mutual accountability and sharing.

The LWF Council also appointed an eight-person Task Force on Family,
Marriage and Sexuality, Noko said. It is intended to support the Council
by proposing guidelines and processes by which "respectful discussion
might be pursued among member churches on issues of family, marriage and
human sexuality where there are agreements and disagreements" within the
Lutheran communion.

At the meeting with the EKD Council chairperson, Noko spoke of the
ecumenical celebrations around the world to mark the fifth anniversary
of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
(JDDJ). He pointed out that Huber had made a "valuable contribution" to
the discussions leading up to the JDDJ, signed on 31 October 1999 in
Augsburg, Germany, by representatives of the LWF and Roman Catholic
Church 

On the occasion of the JDDJ's fifth anniversary, the LWF jointly with
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) are
encouraging Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches to jointly organize
ecumenical activities under the theme "Justified - Freed for Life." On
30 October 2004 General Secretary Noko and PCPCU President Walter
Cardinal Kasper will participate in such a festivity in Johannesburg,
South Africa. Since South Africa is also celebrating the tenth
anniversary of its political change, Noko hoped this would have bearing
on the JDDJ's commemoration. The aim of the celebration, he concluded,
was to make the church universal more visible. (758 words)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a membership of
nearly 65 million Lutherans. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
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 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 an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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