wfn.org | Helsinki Lutheran Bishop Calls for Shared Eucharist with Roman

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

Helsinki Lutheran Bishop Calls for Shared Eucharist with Roman Catholics
Bishop Eero Huovinen Addresses Italian National Eucharistic Congress

BARI, Italy/GENEVA, 14 June 2005 (LWI) * Finnish Bishop Eero Huovinen
pleaded for shared Eucharist between Lutherans and Roman Catholics when
he addressed an annual gathering of Roman Catholics aimed at
strengthening dedication to Holy Communion.

"It is our fervent wish that we Lutherans could kneel together with our
Roman Catholic sisters and brothers at the common Communion table,"
Huovinen, bishop of the Helsinki Diocese, Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Finland (ELCF), told the 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress,
held May 21-29 in Bari, Italy. 

"We yearn for a common table because the Holy Eucharist is the feast of
Christ's presence," he said. His call for unity on May 25, the day the
Congress devoted to ecumenism, was applauded. 

The ELCF bishop believes Roman Catholics and Lutherans commonly respect
and practice the holy feast, a point from which the churches should seek
unity. "Faith in the real presence of Christ at the Eucharist has always
united us Lutherans and Catholics," he said. "We have always wanted to
have confidence that Christ himself is present at the Holy Eucharist in
the bread and the wine 'truly and in substance,' vere et
substantialiter, giving the baptized believer the reality of all of
salvation. As a community the church lives in the true meaning of the
words de eucharistia, out of the mystery and gift of the Eucharist."

While Huovinen desires a shared table, he believes the churches must
find commonality in beliefs and practices of basic truths before joining
at that table. "There is no shortcut to a joint Holy Eucharist," he
said. "The goal of visible unity and of a common Communion demand that
we dig deeper into the foundation of our Christian faith," he added.

Huovinen, who is the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Vice-President for
the Nordic Countries, hopes the churches would take the steps necessary
toward eucharistic sharing. The Congress's dedication to ecumenism may
be, according to the bishop, one of such initiatives.

A significant milestone of ongoing bilateral relations and dialogue
between Lutherans and Roman Catholics was the October 1999 signing of
the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the LWF and
Vatican in Augsburg, Germany. (376 words)

(By Christine Hallenbeck, youth trainee, LWF Office for Communication
Services.)

(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 66 million. 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.)

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