LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION LWI news online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html
- Lutheran-Orthodox Commission Members Prepare for 2008 Plenary Meeting - Costa Rican Lutheran Church Urges Further Resistance to FTA Bills - LWF Directory, Member Church Lists Are Available Online - Latvian Church Now Has Three Bishops - Tanzanian Bishop Bomani Dies - German Theologian Grosshans Is LWF Study Secretary - Hove from Zimbabwe Takes Up Project Coordination Position at
LWF
- Ethiopian Yohannes Saketa Joins LWF Department for Mission and Development - Two Reformed Church Bodies to Merge
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Lutheran-Orthodox Commission Members Prepare for 2008 Plenary Meeting
The preparatory meeting for the 14th Session of the Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission was held from 3 to 8 October in Joensuu, eastern Finland, hosted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Participants in the meeting held at the Orthodox seminary in Joensuu discussed papers that provided theological expositions of Orthodox and Lutheran teaching on "The Mystery of the Church: The Holy Eucharist in the Life of the Church," the theme currently being studied by the Joint Commission. They also deliberated specifications of the common attributes and differences between the teachings of both Christian traditions.
A draft Common Statement developed by the preparatory group and the papers presented will be discussed during the 14th Plenary Meeting of the Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission scheduled for 30 May to 7 June 2008, hosted by the Orthodox.
The Commission's co-presidents are Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima (Orthodox), representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and Rev. Donald McCoid (Lutheran), former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, and currently head of the ELCA's Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations section. (181 words)
More information about the Lutheran-Orthodox dialogue is available on the LWF web site at: www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OEA/Bilateral_Relations/OEA-Lutheran-Ortho dox.html
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Costa Rican Lutheran Church Urges Further Resistance to FTA Bills
While supporters of Costa Rica's Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the USA celebrated the 51.5 percent win by the "YES" coalition in the 7 October referendum in the Central American country, the Lutheran Costarican Church (ILCO) appealed to the "NO" groups to stay together and build up resistance against the FTA-related bills scheduled for parliamentary approval by 29 February 2008.
In a 10 October statement signed by ILCO president Rev. Melvin JimÃnez, the church called for investigations into alleged irregularities during the voting process including use of public funds for the campaign three days prior to the poll.
JimÃnez whose church actively participated in the "NO" coalition criticized the pro-FTA "campaign of lies and fear [which] scared the nation into believing that not endorsing the Free Trade Agreement would send the country into chaos, with massive job losses and crippling of the economy." The statement was addressed to ILCO members, churches and national and international organizations supporting the "NO" coalition, and to Costa Ricans in general.
More at http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2125.EN.html
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LWF Directory, Member Church Lists Are Available Online
The previously printed version of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Directory is now available online in a Portable Document Format (PDF).
The Directory includes information on the LWF, its 140 member churches, recognized churches, congregations and council, as well as national committees, and other directly or indirectly related contacts. Information is also provided on the Federation's governing bodies, Geneva secretariat and the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France.
Internet access to the complete PDF editi on of the 2007 LWF Directory, is offered (2.3 MB) upon request to the LWF Office for Communication Services: cmu@lutheranworld.org
A global list of the member churches, recognized churches, councils and congregations, is also available on the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org
Both documents are updated regularly, and can be downloaded for ready reference.
For more information, please contact the: LWF Office for Communication Services, 150 Route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, Tel. +41/22-791 6111, Fax +41/22-791 6630, E-mail cmu@lutheranworld.org (167 words)
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Latvian Church Now Has Three Bishops
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL) now has three bishops following the consecration of Bishops Einars Alpe and Pavils Bruvers early October. Archbishop Janis Vanags currently heads the ELCL.
Until then the ELCL had only one bishop - the archbishop. Consecrated on 13 October at the Lutheran Cathedral of Rega, Alpe and Bruvers serve the newly created dioceses of Daugavpils and Liepaja respectively. The ELCL synod elected the new bishops at its meeting in June this year. The Riga archdiocese will be under the jurisdiction of the ELCL Archbishop.
The need for more dioceses and bishops was predicted by Archbishop Teodors GrÄnbergs (1933-1944) in the First Republic of Latvia, but this could not be realized at that time due to the start of the Second World War, followed by the Soviet occupation.
Vanags explained the need for additional bishops: "If the church has only one bishop with many international, interchurch, church-state, and other responsibilities, then it is not possible to meet regularly and intensively with all the pastors, talk with them, and help establish a pastors' fellowship within a smaller setting that could be realized within a diocese."
The 250, 000-member ELCL has 297 congregations, served by over 130 ordained pastors and around 70 evangelists. It joined the Lutheran World Federation in 1963. (219 words)
(*KALME News)
*Communication Committee for Lutheran Minority Churches in Europe)
* * * Tanzanian Bishop Bomani Dies
Bishop Nehemia Bomani of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) East of Lake Victoria diocese died on 1 November following an accident at his home in Mwanza, northwest Tanzania.
Bomani, 49, had led the Mwanza-based diocese since 2001. He held a master's degree from the Concordia University, St Paul, Minnesota, USA, and a bachelor of divinity from the ELCT's Makumira University College in Arusha, Tanzania.
He served as a pastor in the East of Lake Victoria diocese from 1988 to 1995, and assistant to the diocesan bishop from 1996 to 2000. He is survived by his wife Neema Bomani and seven children.
The 57,000-member East of Lake Victoria diocese is one of the ELCT's 20 dioceses. The ELCT has a combined membership of 3.5 million members. (132 words)
(ELCT News)
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German Theologian Grosshans Is LWF Study Secretary
Rev. Dr Hans-Peter Grosshans from Wuerttemberg, Germany, is the new Study Secretary for Theology and the Church in the LWF Department for Theology and Studies (DTS).
Grosshans, 49, assumed his new responsibilities at the LWF Geneva secretariat in September 2007, succeeding German theologian Rev. Dr Reinhard Boettcher, who served in this position from April 2003 until March 2007.
Grosshans studied Protestant theology and philosophy at the Eberhard Karls University, Tuebingen, Germany, and at Keble College, University of Oxford in the United Kingdom between 1979 and 1986. He subsequently served as a vicar (pastor-in-training), and was ordained as a pastor of the Evangelical Church in Wuerttemberg in 1989.
He worked as an assistant to Dr Eberhard Juengel at the University of Tuebingen from 1989 to 1994, before attaining his doctorate there in Protestant theology in 1995. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the universityâs department for Systematic Theology and Ph ilosophy of Religion as well as the Institute for Hermeneutics, where he served as deputy director until 2003. Grosshans completed his post-doctoral thesis (Habilitation) in systematic theology at the university in 2002.
Between 2002 and 2005 Grosshans worked as a non-tenured professor of systematic theology at the universities of Giessen, Hamburg and Munich, all in Germany, and at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
From April 2004 to August 2007 he worked in a research project,
"The understanding of the church in the Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic theology," funded by the German Research Foundation. During this period, he also conducted research with the Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (FEST) in Heidelberg, Germany.
Grosshans is married with two children. (275 words)
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Hove from Zimbabwe Takes Up Project Coordination Position at
LWF
On 1 November, Ms Simangaliso Hove from Zimbabwe assumed the position of Secretary for Program and Project Coordination in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for Mission and Development. Hove, 45, succeeds Ms Margret Stasius from Switzerland, who left the LWF at the end of May 2007.
A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ), Hove headed the finance unit of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) from 1994 until 2007. She was the ZCC finance officer from 1987 to 1993, prior to which she was a bursar at Cranborne Boys' High School in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare for four years.
Hove has served on the board of Lutheran Development Service (LDS), the LWF Department for World Service associate program in Zimbabwe. She was a member of the personnel and recruitment standing committee of Christian Care, an ecumenical organization comprising churches and church-related organizations, and was on the ELCZ finance committee for several years.
She holds a bachelor of commerce from the Pretoria (South Africa)-based University of South Africa.
Hove is married with three children. (188 words)
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Ethiopian Yohannes Saketa Joins LWF Department for Mission and Development
In mid-October Mr Abebe Yohannes Saketa from Ethiopia assumed the position of Secretary for Human Resources Development at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for Mission and Development (DMD).
Saketa, 54, has nearly 30-years' experience in education and development work, mainly with his home church, the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). He succeeds Ms Kristin Roaldseth Moyer from Norway who left the LWF in May 2007.
Prior to joining LWF/DMD, he was EECMY associate general secretary for 21 years, responsible overall for planning, coordination and human resource development. Before his employment at the EECMY head office in 1986, he had worked for four years as director of the Lalo Aira Senior Secondary in the Western Synod. He first joined the EECMY in 1971 as assistant head of the Western Synodâs education department, a position he held until 1973 when he proceeded for further education.
He served as chairperson of an EECMY- LWF joint management committee mainly dealing with rehabilitation and development of the churchâs integrated rural development work. From 1991 to 1997 he was an LWF Council adviser on the Program Committee for Communication Service. He represented the EECMY on the board of the public Ethiopian News Agency from 1998 to 2004.
Saketa earned his master's in communication from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, USA, (1992), and his bachelor's in social science and history from the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1982.
Saketa and his wife Aberash Dinsa have one son. (253 words)
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Two Reformed Church Bodies to Merge
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) agreed on 20 October to unite with the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) to create a new global body representing over 80 million Reformed Christians.
The historic decision took place at WARC' s Executive Committee held 18-28 October 2007 in Trinidad and Tobago, following detailed discussions on aspects of the proposed merger. The committee agreed to recommend to REC that the new global entity be called the World Communion of Reformed Churches. It also approved terms of reference for a merger implementation working group to be responsible for a constitution, budget, staffing and structure details, the Uniting General Council (likely in 2010), as well as fundraising and communication plans. The meetingâs theme was "Called to Communion: From Elmina to Port of Spain," and it focused largely on justice issues and church unity at large and within the Reformed family.
At its Executive Committee in March, REC had approved in principle a new Reformed body.
WARC is a worldwide fellowship of 75 million Reformed Christians in 214 churches in 107 countries. REC represents 12 million Reformed Christians in 39 churches in 25 countries, with 27 of the churches also belonging to WARC.
Some of the member churches of the Lutheran World Federation also belong to WARC. (217 words)
(WARC News)
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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 nearly 66.7 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith 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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