wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Lutheran,

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8965 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05553
Oct. 14, 2005

Lutheran, Reformed Protestants
can't agree on joint assembly in 2010
 
by Stephen Brown 
Ecumenical News International 

EVIAN, France - Leaders of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) say
it won't be possible for the alliance to hold its next global Assembly
jointly with the Lutheran World Federation, as they had hoped.	
  
	"We learned with a deep sense of disappointment that the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF), while affirming their willingness to consider
ecumenical gatherings in the future, decided to proceed on their own with an
assembly in Stuttgart in 2010," the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the alliances's
president, announced Thursday during a meeting of WARC's executive committee.

	Reformed and Lutheran Protestants trace their history to the
Protestant Reformation in Europe, but in the past have been separated on some
doctrinal issues.  
  
	Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
and WARC's general secretary, the Rev. Setri Nyomi, had proposed to the
Lutheran federation in September that the two groups hold their next
assemblies in the same place, although constitutional elements would be dealt
with separately.  
  
	"We in WARC believe that we have a unique opportunity for WARC and
LWF to set the example ... as an expression of our commitment (to Christian
unity)," Kirkpatrick and Nyomi wrote in their proposal.  
  
	The Reformed alliance decided in 1997 that its assemblies "should, if
possible, be organized jointly and concurrently" with meetings of governing
bodies of the LWF and the World Council of Churches.  
  
	The three church groups, all headquartered in the Ecumenical Center
in Geneva, have overlapping memberships and hold separate assemblies every
few years. The joint meeting had been proposed to eliminate costly
duplication at a time when member churches are dealing with financial
pressures.

	The WARC executive committee heard from the Rev. Ishmael Noko, the
Lutheran federation's general secretary, that it remains committed to
ecumenical cooperation and agrees that there is a need "to alter the style of
gatherings." But he warned that a joint meeting that did not include the
World Council of Churches could lead to misunderstandings.

	"We would have liked to see these two bodies give an example,"
Kirkpatrick told Ecumenical News International. "If it is still possible to
do this around 2010, we would still welcome it. It is our understanding that
it is not."  
  
	The Reformed alliance has put off a decision on its own assembly -
called the General Council - until 2007, with the "hope that ecumenical
possibilities may emerge" in the meantime.  
  
	Jitka Krausova, of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, which
belongs to both WARC and the LWF, said cooperation is crucial. "In my
country," she said, "we have to work together, or we won't survive."

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org