LWI News in Brief No. 04/2006
- Germany: Munich Churches to Host 2nd Ecumenical Kirchentag in 2010 - Membership Decline Slowing in German Regional Church - United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India Elects New Head - German Protestant Kirchentag Has New General Secretary - ELCA Presiding Bishop Calls Church to Action, Prayer for Darfur, Sudan - LWF World Service Cambodia Program Receives National Award - Lutheran Leader Says Controversial Law Hurt India's Minorities - More People Joined Austrian Church in 2005
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Germany: Munich Churches to Host 2nd Ecumenical Kirchentag in 2010
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and (Roman Catholic) Archdiocese of Munich and Freising will co-host the Second German Ecumenical "Kirchentag" (church convention) from 12 to 16 May 2010 in Munich, Germany.
More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the second large joint event of Christian lay organizations in Germany, of which the central theme will be the role of Christians in society. The German Protestant Kirchentag and the Central Committee of German Catholics are jointly organizing the event.
Presenting their joint official invitation to the event on 10 March in Munich, Bavarian Bishop Dr Johannes Friedrich and Cardinal Friedrich Wetter of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, cautioned against linking the Ecumenical Kirchentag with unrealistic expectations in view of a shared Eucharist.
The stage reached by the theological conversations between Protestants and Roman Catholics was not sufficiently advanced to fulfill such an expectation "in any realistic way," Friedrich noted. He said disagreement over joint eucharistic celebrations around the time of the first Ecumenical Kirchentag had not helped ecumenism. Over 200,000 people attended the first such gathering from 28 May to 1 June 2003 in Berlin, Germany.
Cardinal Wetter noted, "A gathering of this kind will hardly be able to contribute to solving such questions." He recommended a contribution of the common Christian values to the public debate.
Organizers of the ecumenical event note that other Christian churches are invited to participate. Conversations with other religions would be welcome. (248 words)
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Membership Decline Slowing in German Regional Church
There is a continuing decline in the number of people leaving the Evangelical Church in Wuerttemberg, Germany. The church's provisional statistics indicate that the 9,700 people who submitted their membership resignation from the church in 2005 represent the lowest figure recorded since 1988. In 2004, some 11,500 people left, while in 2003 there were 14,100 recorded departures. In 2004, the church had 2,335,722 members compared with the 2,346,879 recorded for 2003.
The number of new members, excluding baptisms, increased from 2,641 in 2004 to more than 2,900 in 2005. The number of baptisms in 2005, especially in view of the ongoing general decline in the birth rate, was 21,300 compared with 22,061 in 2004. (121 words)
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United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India Elects New Head
The Rev. Dr A. G. Augustine Jeyakumar is the new executive secretary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI). Elected by the UELCI Executive Committee on 17 March, he assumed office in the middle of May, succeeding Rev. Chandran Paul Martin, who takes up the position of Deputy General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in June.
A member of the Arcot Lutheran Church, Jeyakumar has served the Chennai-based UELCI in different capacities for more than three decades. Until his recent election, he has been executive secretary of the LWF National Committee in India since 2003 and director of the UELCI Division for Social Action.
The UELCI unites 11 Lutheran churches with a combined membership of almost 2 million Christians.
The UELCI Executive Committee also elected Dr Kunchala Rajaratnam as Executive Secretary of the LWF National Committee in India, a position he has previously held. A leading figure in the Indian Lutheran and global ecumenical scene, Rajaratnam has served the UELCI for more than four decades. From 1975 until 1979, he was Secretary for Asia in the then LWF Department of Church Cooperation. He was a member of the LWF Executive Committee from 1985 until 1990. (211 words)
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German Protestant Kirchentag Has New General Secretary
Effective 1 July 2006, Dr Ellen Ueberschaer will be the new general secretary of the German Protestant Kirchentag (church convention) in Fulda, Germany. The Kirchentag's board appointed the 38-year-old theologian in late March. She will succeed Superintendent Friederike von Kirchbach, who has been general secretary since 2000.
Ueberschaer is currently director of studies in theology, ethics and law at the Evangelical Academy of Loccum in Germany. She studied theology in Berlin and Heidelberg from 1988 until 1995, and was a research assistant specializing in theology at the University of Marburg. She was awarded the Philipps Prize for her dissertation at the University of Marburg in 2002. Her practical church training included work on contemporary history and politics at the Protestant Academy in Berlin. She has been a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
The 31st German Protestant Kirchentag will take place from 6 to 10 June 2007, in Cologne, Germany.
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ELCA Presiding Bishop Calls Church to Action, Prayer for Darfur, Sudan
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has called on the church to learn about and discuss the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, western Sudan and, most of all, pray for the people there.
In a message to the ELCA on 19 May, Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), noted there was "cautious, hopeful news" about the Darfur region with the May 2006 signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and Sudan Liberation Movement. He credited the United States' government, African Union and international community for facilitating the peace pact, and urged the US Congress to approve more than USD 400 million for humanitarian and peacekeeping aid to Sudan in the 2006 fiscal year.
Hanson noted that the ELCA, LWF and the Geneva-based churches' emergency response body, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and other relief agencies were providing needed supplies in Sudan. He urged the ELCA members to be consistent advocates for justice for all people, including those in the Darfur region. (186 words)
The text of Bishop Hanson's statement, including links to resources, is at www.elca.org/bishop/m_darfur.html on the ELCA Web site.
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LWF World Service Cambodia Program Receives National Award
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) country program in Cambodia has received a national medal recognizing its work in disaster preparedness and management.
The Government of Cambodia awarded the LWF/DWS program the National Reconstruction Medal, and a certificate signed by Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, on 5 May 2006. The award acknowledges the good partnership between the LWF program and the Cambodian National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), which includes organization of some 200 village disaster-preparedness committees, and funding for over 200 disaster mitigation projects. The goal is to gradually empower the communities to take over their own sustainable development.
The state medal is the second official recognition of LWF/DWS Cambodia this year. In April, the Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) gave the program the highest ranking among six programs supported by the Australian Agency for International Development. "Of the six projects evaluated, the LWF project had the highest overall aggregate 'ranking' and was the only project to get a best practice rating of 5," ALWS Executive Secretary, Mr Peter Schirmer, said.
The LWF/DWS program, in Cambodia since 1979, works in relatively remote rural areas and in under-served parts of the country. Led by LWF/DWS Cambodia Representative, Mr David Mueller, the program currently employs 300 staff members. (219 words)
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Lutheran Leader Says Controversial Law Hurt India's Minorities
The head of the Chennai-based United Evangelical Lutheran Church of India (UELCI) was among church leaders who welcomed the recent defeat in regional elections of India's ruling party, which had backed an anti-conversion law seen as harmful to Christians.
"We are proud of the people for exercising their democratic rights responsibly," the outgoing UELCI executive secretary, Rev. Chandran Paul Martin said after the May 2006 defeat of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) at elections in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Martin noted that most Christians and other minorities in the state voted against the ruling party for its failure on several counts including the controversial anti-conversion bill "that hurt the minorities badly." The party and its allies won only 69 of the 234 seats in the legislature, while the opposition alliance of Democratic Progressive Alliance that supported the Christians during their protests against the anti-conversion bill garnered 163 seats, representing a two-thirds majority.
Ignoring protests by Christians, Muslims, civil rights groups and opposition parties, the ruling AIADMK had in 2002 passed the controversial bill to ban conversions by "fraud, force or inducement" without debate in the state assembly.
Christians account for just over 6 percent of Tamil Nadu's 62 million people. Muslims make up 8 percent. (218 words) [Ecumenical News International]
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More People Joined Austrian Church in 2005
Membership in the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria grew by 14 percent in 2005, considerably more than in 2004, according to an April 2006 analysis. The number of those leaving the church declined by 4 percent.
Baptisms at the church increased by 6 percent and marriages by 3.69 percent, in the same year. Confirmation of young people rose by 3.64 percent as well, indicating relatively stable membership overall. As of 31 December 2005, the church had 324,296 members compared with 325,429 in 2004, a decline of 0.35 percent.
Leading Bishop Herwig Sturm attributes these results to the church's three-year-long reorganization, currently in its second phase. He notes that the Austrian church is an "inviting church," beyond the boundaries of its own membership.
He says it is important to strengthen ties with congregational members and "openly turn to people outside of the congregation." The issue of spirituality has been a previous highlight, and the current emphasis on a "child-friendly church" enables local congregations to experience "encouragement and strength," firsthand. (177 words)
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(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 66.2 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 freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
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