|
|
|
The Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran World Information |
|
| 10.07.2003 |
|
| Joining Efforts with Other Religions in the Search for Peace and the Integrity of Creation |
| |
Interview with the LWF President Bishop emeritus Dr Christian Krause
GENEVA, 10 July 2003 (LWI) - The global communion of Lutheran churches is faced with challenging task of seeking, together with other religions, "paths toward peace and the integrity of creation," the president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop emeritus Dr Christian Krause said in an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI).
Krause reminded Christian churches and other religious communities of their obligation to be actively engaged in the fight against poverty, injustice and all forms of violence in society.
The interview was a reflection on his six-year term in office. Krause was appointed as LWF President at the 1997 Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong, China. His term ends after the 21-31 July 2003 Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada.
He pointed out that on the basis of its unique experience, the LWF should explore in interreligious dialogue, the extent to which the model of reconciled diversity is possible beyond the fellowship of Christians - in the fellowship among religions. He expressed hope that the LWF together with the other confessional world communions, and the World Council of Churches would be able to combine the critical functions of theology with the missionary revival of the more charismatic churches and communities.
The full text of the interview with LWF President Krause follows:
Interview with the LWF President Bishop emeritus Dr Christian Krause
LWI: Dr Krause, in July 1997, at the Ninth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Hong Kong, you were elected LWF President. What hopes, desires and visions did you have as you took office six years ago, at the 50th anniversary of the LWF?
Krause: I had already been close to the Lutheran World Federation for a good part of its 50 years, since 1966, when I became research assistant in the Department for Theology in Geneva. I was aware of the great variety of the LWF’s tasks from my own experience, not only in its theological work but also later as a staff person of the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service, and finally in my position on the LWF National Committee in Germany. Thus my desires and visions were concentrated on progress at these different levels. Of course I especially had the dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church in mind, with the hope that there would be steps forward there as well as throughout the ecumenical movement.
It has always been a particular concern of mine to see the LWF, not as fenced off from the other confessions or the ecumenical community, but rather in all its openness, and to develop the ecumenical dimension of the confessional body. Of course this included the particular situation in the world. The Ninth Assembly took place relatively soon after the great revolutionary change of 1989-90, which resulted in a new openness and removing boundaries, and this brought us the new challenges emerging from concerns such as globalization. We were confronted on one hand with numerous dangers, on the other, with new opportunities through electronic communications and cross-border trade.
What was especially present to me in Hong Kong was the world-wide network of the LWF with its emphasis on direct diaconal action, its missionary approach to the Gospel, its theological profile and, as I said, especially its ecumenical breadth and openness.
LWI: At your first press conference as LWF President, on 14 July 1997 in Hong Kong, you said that confessional communities such as the LWF had become more important than ever for the ecumenical movement. You warned against a pullback, since dialogues such as the one on the doctrine of justification with the Roman Catholic Church in particular are only possible between confessional families. What would your judgment be today?
Krause: There is of course no question that, obviously, confessional issues have to be discussed and clarified between confessional churches. Thus in reassessing the history of theology and the church, dialogue between the historic churches and confessions is extraordinarily important. To me it is especially significant that the confessional world communions have become more visible in recent years, and are reaching out more to one another.
The Roman Catholic Church, the churches of the Reformation, that is the Reformed and Lutheran world bodies, the Anglican Communion, the Orthodox churches - these are important and indispensable poles especially for interconfessional conversations, for seeking together, for the ecumenical fellowship as a whole and thus also for the World Council of Churches.
LWI: On 31 October 1999 you were in Augsburg, Germany as one of the signatories to the Official Common Statement with which the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was solemnly recognized by the LWF and Roman Catholic Church. The dialogue which finally led to the Joint Declaration had lasted over 30 years. Was this signing ceremony a high point of your presidency?
Krause: For me, the 31 October 1999 is an extraordinarily important date. The 30 years of dialogue show not only its significance, but also that it was high time for these conversations, for at least a start towards overcoming this almost 500-year-old division. Augsburg was the place where, in 1530, the rejection of the Confessio Augustana marked the failure of the last attempt at bridge-building. The dispute that followed caused immeasurable suffering, enmities, the Counter-Reformation, the Thirty Years’ War - one could go on and on. There was misuse of power in all sorts of ways, the Reformation was made an instrument of politics and especially of conflict between the churches of the Reformation and the Roman Catholic Church.
What is remarkable is that the two sides in the dialogue have reached a consensus on basic truths. We are not trying to monopolize the truth over against one another, but rather naming together that which is at the core of the Gospel, that is, justification by grace alone through faith, which is the central significance of God’s act of salvation. Nevertheless, the signing of the Joint Declaration does not mark a full stop, but rather a colon: we now have a basis on which to go further, and we must do so. The concept of reconciled diversity underlines our new relationship after the long age of enmity.
The signing of the Joint Declaration also showed that the community within the LWF stands firmly together and, can take a unanimous position even in the face of differing opinions.
LWI: What did the signing of the Joint Declaration change for Lutheran and Catholic Christians? Just recently, at your farewell visit to Pope John Paul II, you urged once again more intensive efforts toward at least ecumenical hospitality at the Eucharist. Had you expected visible results to come sooner?
Krause: My exhortation to move toward sharing the Eucharist, at least in the sense of mutual ecumenical hospitality at the Lord’s Table, still stands. This is such a central witness to the Christian faith we share that I think we have reason to keep mentioning it. But I think it is completely wrong to concentrate exclusively on that which we do not yet have.
We ought also to recognize all that which has already been achieved. It is absolutely crucial that we are able to meet together and have dealings with one another in mutual respect and also in mutual trust. There will always continue to be setbacks, as is the nature of things among human beings and human institutions. But I must say that the consensus on the basic truths of the faith has brought about a reconciliation and readiness to meet one another which I can only describe as gratifying. In spite of all the differences which still remain, we must not lose sight of what we have in common.
During my farewell visit in April with Pope John Paul II in Rome, and in my conversations with Walter Cardinal Kasper, I not only put a full emphasis on the question of the Eucharist, but also expressly thanked them for standing with us on peace issues, for example in our common actions with regard to the Iraq War and our common stand on peace in the Middle East.
In many countries in the world, Lutheran churches are comparatively small compared to the Roman Catholic Church. Often they have deliberately distanced themselves from one another in the past. Since the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification I have experienced on many of my travels throughout the world, that people now are no longer afraid to approach one another, and haven’t simply filed away the Joint Declaration but are actively making use of it. They are holding joint worship services, and the churches are making the effort to establish joint positions on political and social issues which have to do with people’s lives. I consider these developments as extraordinarily important.
LWI: When you took office in 1997, the LWF had 122 member churches in 70 countries, with a total membership of about 57 million; today it represents 136 member churches in 76 countries, with over 61.7 million members. What do you see as the continuing appeal that the LWF has?
Krause: What is even more impressive is the number of founding churches. The LWF was founded in 1947 by 47 churches in 23 countries. It then means that with regard to numbers of both member churches and countries, the LWF has almost tripled in size. But these figures also represent massive shifts in substance. With few exceptions, the founding churches were European and North American, thus almost exclusively north Atlantic. Since 1947 the LWF’s global network has extended substantially to churches and countries in the southern hemisphere; there has been a shift in its center of gravity from the North toward the South. This seems to me to be the really serious difference, with considerable consequences for substance, both theological and ecclesiological.
Our member churches are all looking for community, and the LWF offers a community. Many of them are small, are isolated, and have to find their way in their own countries and surroundings. For guidance, they look to their sister churches in neighboring countries and throughout the world. In responding to the social challenges in their own local contexts, these churches also receive support just like their governments do, and they can emphatically say, "We may be small, but we belong to a great world-wide communion.”
LWI: Since the 1984 Seventh Assembly in Budapest, Hungary, the LWF no longer sees itself as a loose federation, but as a communion of churches. The new LWF Constitution adopted in 1990 in Curitiba, Brazil says so. Is the LWF doing justice to this purpose, and what are the consequences of this self-understanding?
Krause: That’s an exciting question. That a greater degree of communion, or of commitment, has been reached became visible in a sustained way with regard to the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The LWF had to ask all the member churches, and they in turn had to involve their synods, if they were so constituted. And the vote was not absolutely unanimous among all the member churches. The question then was, who decides? The recommendation of the overwhelming majority to the LWF Council, after a careful theological evaluation of the votes received, was to sign the Joint Declaration. The Council then voted unanimously in favor, and not one of the member churches protested. The communion stood the test.
The question may be asked, how much authority is entrusted to a communion by its individual churches. This was certainly a point on which it became clear that here a stronger obligation was not only desired; it was also possible. With regard to the discussion as to whether the LWF should call itself a communio, I am of the opinion that this needs to be defined very carefully. A higher degree of commitment and of obligation to the LWF Communion should in no case be expressed, first of all, in a stronger centralization in Geneva. We don’t want and don’t need a "Lutheran Rome."
For me the critical questions are rather: can we take a stand on the challenging issues of our day, and in doing so rely on one another and sustain our commitment to and for one another? Will our churches and people, in the midst of such bitter poverty as we see reigning in two-thirds of the world, be willing to make statements as a community - can they and should they have confidence in such a process? Or are these just empty declarations? It will be important to give a clear theological answer to the question of what is the basis of our communio and whether everyone shares in this. It is my impression that the growing differences between North and South, the economic gap between the winners and victims of globalization, as well as what we see in the ecumenical gap between the historic churches and the charismatic communities, are the decisive test for such a communio.
LWI: While the Lutheran churches of the South are growing, some of them considerably, the membership figures of almost all the big Lutheran churches in North America and Europe are continuing to decrease. What do you think is the cause of these contrasting developments, and what can the churches learn from one another?
Krause: In the churches of the North, our existential questions are either very individualistic or out of touch with public life. In the South it’s different. Questions of faith are always directed to the community and its life in common, and its survival. There is also a very natural relationship to the mission of the church, and a totally natural way of carrying it out. Talking about one’s own position as a believer, and living according to it, is a matter of course and is not questioned in the South.
Many of the churches that have recently joined the LWF have grown out of the missions in Africa, for example the mission of the church in Tanzania or Namibia. This also plays a role in their societies, in making the witness to Christ public, including clear statements of one’s positions; in expressing it in lively, colorful worship, and in taking for granted the witness to one’s personal Christianity. This is what we in the North have often lost.
Currently, the fastest growing Lutheran churches, and other historic churches are those which succeed in integrating the charismatic movements into their church lives. In the same period of 30 years, the membership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Germany has dropped nearly 40 per cent, from about 670,000 to 420,000, while in Ethiopia it has multiplied six times, starting from 670,000, to over four million.
Of course this raises the question of who is changing whom and what this means for the confessional world communion. The great awakening of the charismatic faith movements in the southern hemisphere can only be seen, in my opinion, in the context of poverty and suffering. The Gospel is the Gospel of the poor, and the cross is the sign of the church. It is in suffering that hope appears, hope of overcoming sorrow and poverty. Entering into new life through the cross - that is precisely opposed to the pleasure-seeking society.
Moreover, we are faced today with the central task of finding our way to an interreligious dialogue, of seeking, together with other religions, paths towards peace and the valuing of the creation, and involving ourselves together in overcoming poverty, injustice and violence. It’s the famous triad of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Here it is imperative that we reach out to one another with respect, with eagerness, and with the desire to know one another. Equally important is to clarify our own position: what do we actually stand for? And that’s something we can learn from the churches of the South - to take our stand quite naturally on our own faith convictions, which are rooted in our own hearts, in public as well. In interreligious dialogue, the LWF on the basis of its unique experience, should explore to what extent the model of reconciled diversity is possible beyond the fellowship of Christians, in the fellowship among religions.
LWI: In the past six years you in person have visited many LWF member churches. You have been to churches in every continent, in almost every country of central and eastern Europe, and you were the first LWF President to visit the churches of Papua New Guinea. What impression have you gained of the world-wide Lutheran community, and what have you been able to set in motion during your travels?
Krause: I have again and again experienced a great feeling that we all belong together, a downright family feeling, and unbelievable hospitality. To be at home everywhere where there are Lutheran churches was a great, a marvelous feeling, for which I am deeply grateful.
The second point is that during my travels I have been able emphasize over and over again to people that: You are part of a greater whole. In central and eastern Europe that has played a most important role at a practical level, there where the small Lutheran churches in the former countries behind the Iron Curtain have to get their bearings all over again in post-communist societies. This touches almost all aspects of church life. It includes rebuilding their diaconal work, which in not a few places was prohibited; pastoral work in prisons and the military, religious teaching in schools, church festivals and much more. Here the churches are also beginning to look at their role in the new process of Europe's reunification.
In many countries the visit of the LWF President was a time for conversations at the highest political level. This presented an opportunity to strengthen the governments' and political leaders' awareness of the important bridge-building function which churches can have within their own countries. One example is Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world and not inconsiderable tensions between Christians and Muslims. Here I was able to speak both with President Megawati and with the leaders of Islamic organizations. Doors could be opened in a way, often not possible locally for the smaller churches. These experiences gave me a feel for the importance, for these churches, of belonging to a world communion and of making its presence known.
I have always thought of my visits also as expressly pastoral. It was clear that I could not accept every invitation. But I gave priority to those from churches which were going through a difficult time or faced immediate challenges, for example Lutheran churches which were or are threatened with schism. Here it is important that we from the world-wide communion can at least offer a table at which the parties to the conflict can sit down together.
LWI: The Ninth Assembly in 1997 had the theme "In Christ - Called to Witness” - it was the last Assembly of the 20th century and the first on the continent of Asia. What do you hope will be the impetus of the Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada, July21-31, on the theme "For the Healing of the World”?
Krause: The theme of the Tenth Assembly is surprisingly and extraordinarily relevant for today. After the revolution of 1989-90, we hoped we had come closer together. The East-West conflict was over, walls had fallen down and thresholds were being lowered. And then burst forth those things which we probably hadn’t noticed properly, hidden under the crust of the East-West conflict - the huge rift between rich and poor, disregard for human rights, conflicts between religions and new outbreaks of violence. This means that "For the Healing of the World" must be an occasion for us to see where the decisive breaks, wounds and cracks are which weigh us down and demand our attention.
The second very crucial point is to make it clear whence our help comes. Here the doctrine of justification will again play an essential role, also in its social ethics aspect: there is no justice without grace. We must truly pray to God for the healing of the world, hope for it and expect it from God, and thus set out together to be Jesus’ disciples.
LWI: How do you see the future? In the year 2017 the Lutheran communion will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation: in 2022 the LWF will celebrate its 75th anniversary. Where will the LWF be by then; how may it have changed and developed?
Krause: Well, there we can only speak in terms of a vision. I suspect that the movements of the South will cause parochial ways of being church, with their institutions and structures, to recede further in favor of spiritual movements. Even the traditional well-ordered Lutheran churches will become more like spiritual revival churches. They may become smaller in the process, but I think they will come to have more the character of movements. Here a Lutheran World Federation must be first of all the linking place, and have a serving function, to make world-wide communion possible in such a process.
This will go together with a reduction in the role of the LWF as an inter-church service organization. The main question will be, what can each of us contribute, from our situation, that we can share with others? And how do we preserve our communio on the common foundation of Reformation theology? More use must be made of the global aspect of this tool we have in our hands, the LWF. This will also help to promote communion amongst our ecumenical partners.
How the WCC changes will also make a lot of difference. It too will have to take in more of the charismatic, spiritualist movements, as it is already making efforts to do. I hope that a stronger association will be possible with them, and that the LWF together with the other confessional world communions and the WCC will be able to combine the critical functions of theology with the missionary revival of the more charismatic churches and communities.
What I also hope for is that we can sit down at one table with people of the different religions and seek ways to peace. In this connection I hope that a Lutheran World Federation, however it may be put together as an organization, will contribute to the defense against every form of fundamentalism, and will help to promote common positions for world peace. So it is there that I see the future of the LWF: to serve as a platform for dialogue, but not just for dialogue’s sake, but for the sake of life. That would be a changed, a very active Lutheran World Federation, and certainly no longer a primarily North Atlantic one.
(LWI Editor Dirk-Michael Grötzsch, conducted the original German language interview with the LWF President, Bishop emeritus Dr Christian Krause.)
|
If you want to edit this article yourself and adapt it to a given format, follow our editing information
|
|
|
|
|
|
