wfn.org | LWF General Secretary Noko Calls for Pan-African Lutheran

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

LWF General Secretary Noko Calls for Pan-African Lutheran Council
Namibia: "To Be Lutheran Is To Be Ecumenical"

WINDHOEK, Namibia/GENEVA, 13 November 2005 (LWI) * The general secretary
of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, has called
for the establishment of a Pan-African Lutheran council to promote inner
Lutheran unity. As an instrument of the African Lutheran communion, it
would also enhance ecumenical engagement and inter-faith dialogue. 

In his November 9 key note address to participants in the Africa
Lutheran Church Leadership Conference taking place in Namibia's capital
Windhoek, Noko said the strengthening of inner Lutheran unity was a
priority for Lutheran churches in the future. "To be Lutheran is to be
ecumenical," he said, and cited the October 1999 signing of the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the LWF and Roman
Catholic Church in Augsburg, Germany. 

There are over 80 representatives of African Lutheran churches and
partner churches and organizations attending the November 9-14
conference under the theme, "From Isolation to Communion: For the
Healing of Africa." The three Lutheran churches in Namibia jointly with
LWF are hosting the meeting.

According to the LWF constitution, Noko explained, full membership in
the Federation implied that all churches were in pulpit and altar
fellowship, which meant that the pulpits and altars of every member
church were open to the ministers of every other member church. "We need
to give structure to this commitment and should develop specific
procedures by which pastors from sister churches can be recognized in
the [clergy roster]." 

Noko described the 1947 formation of the LWF in Lund, Sweden, and the
historical 1955 gathering of all African Lutheran churches in Marangu,
Tanzania as clear signals that Lutheran churches would do whatever was
possible to move out of isolation to communion. The delegates of the two
African churches present at the founding of the LWF - Madagascar and
South Africa - were both Norwegian missionaries. The Executive Committee
elected at the 1952 Second LWF Assembly in Hanover, Germany had no
African representation, Noko recalled. He noted that the Marangu meeting
had made it painfully clear how isolated Lutheran churches in Africa
were at that time. 

The LWF general secretary expressed the hope that the meeting in
Windhoek, which is an occasion to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
Marangu conference, would be another milestone on the way out of
isolation. 

Noko particularly stressed the need to end women's isolation in Lutheran
churches. "Despite elaborate theological reasoning why women should not
participate in the vineyard of the Lord, we can't afford to argue that
way," he said. He reminded the participants how similar biblical and
theological arguments were used in the past to justify political and
economic systems such as apartheid in order to exclude the black
community. "Africans cannot forget this," he stressed. 

He suggested that the church leadership conference consider appointing a
doctrinal committee to assist the Lutheran communion in Africa to deal
with contemporary challenging theological and ethical issues such as
human sexuality. 

Another subject for serious consideration was the improvement of working
conditions of African Lutheran churches' employees. Noko said he had
encountered "painful situations in churches, where church workers are
living under conditions of abject poverty, and pastors and other church
employees are unpaid for months." He proposed the study of models of
church workers' unions in other countries such as Finland in order to
find ways of dealing with this issue.

*	*	*

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140
member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total
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.)

[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
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*	*	*

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