LWF Council Meeting 2005
Jerusalem/Bethlehem, 31 August - 6 September 2005
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General Bishop Dr Július Filo (right) congratulated Oberkirchenrat Heiner Küenzlen (left) after the LWF Council had decided that the Evangelical Church in Württemberg (Germany) will host the LWF Eleventh Assembly in 2010. In the middle is LWF Treasurer Peter Stoll. |
Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation
in Stuttgart in 2010
The Evangelical Church in Württemberg, Germany, will host the Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 2010. The assembly will take place in Stuttgart.
Oberkirchenrat Heiner Küenzlen said he was happy to welcome delegates from all LWF member churches to the forthcoming Assembly in Stuttgart. © LWF/J.Brooks |
The LWF Council decided on the assembly venue on September 5. With 23 votes in favor, 19 against and one abstention, the LWF Council members accepted the Württemberg church assembly invitation over that of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic (ECAC-SR), presented by General Bishop Dr Július Filo.
Oberkirchenrat Heiner Küenzlen, who presented the invitation from the Württemberg church, said it was a great honor for the German church to host the forthcoming Assembly in Stuttgart. He said he was happy to welcome delegates from all LWF member churches to Württemberg. “The Christian church is a global church, it will be good for us to have Christians from all over the world as our guests. In Germany, we focus very much on our own problems in church and society, but we want to share in the joys and concerns of the Evangelical Lutheran churches worldwide,” Küenzlen remarked. He said the forthcoming LWF Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart would be marked as a celebration of the Lutheran church in the region and of all Christians.
General Bishop Dr Július Filo presented the invitation from the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic. |
The ECAC-SR Bishop Filo congratulated the Württemberg church for the Council decision on the Assembly. It would have been a “great opportunity for the Slovak church to host the Assembly together with the neighboring and partner church in Germany,” he said. He hoped that the 2010 Assembly in Stuttgart would be a public event enabling the grassroots to participate.
The Württemberg church, with 2.35 million members is one of the 13 member churches of the LWF German National Committee (GNC). It joined the LWF in 1947, and has its headquarters in Stuttgart. More...
LWF Council Extends Full Membership to Three Churches Pushing Total Worldwide to 140
Rev. Claudia Schreiber (Germany), Chairperson of the Standing Committee for Membership. |
The Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) extended full membership to three churches in India, Norway and Peru, pushing the number of LWF member churches worldwide from the current 138 to 140, as one church was already an associate member church.
The Council approved full LWF membership for the 21,000-member Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway, which has held associate membership since 1997. The Peruvian Lutheran Evangelical Church (ILEP) with 1,110 members was a recognized congregation. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Himalayan States (ELCITHS) in India with 23,350 members has had no previous recognition by the LWF. It has however been a member of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) since November 2002.
The LWF Council members extended full membership to three new member churches. © LWF/D.-M.Grötzsch |
The new churches increase LWF membership by slightly over 21,500 Christians to 65,948,879 in 78 countries compared to the 65,927,334 in 77 countries recorded at the end of 2004.
Founded in 1877, the Norwegian church has one synod and five presbyteries with 82 congregations all over the country. In 2005, the church decided to introduce the ordination of women. It has regular relationships with several LWF member churches.
The ILEP is already a recognized congregation of the LWF. It has 12 congregations and three mission points served by 13 pastors, five of whom are women. It has its origins in an initiative from the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Peru, and the missionary work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from 1967 to 1982.
The ELCITHS brings together four different churches representing five distinct ethnic communities in the Himalayan States. The church has had a close association with the UELCI for the last ten years. It is a member of the LWF National Committee in India. More...
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