15.06.2004
Discussion on Identity of LWF Communion Prominent at Asian Regional Conference
Malaysian Churches Host Assembly Follow-up ConferenceKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia/GENEVA, 15 June 2004 (LWI) – Representatives of Asian Lutheran churches gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to follow up on decisions of the July 2003 Tenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), kept returning to the question: what does it mean for us to be a communion of churches?
Bishop Dr Wesley Kigasung, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, in his keynote address to the June 4-7 Asian Church Leadership Conference (ACLC), spoke of excitement at the growth of the region's Lutheran churches into "a unified body, as we now like to refer to ourselves as a communion of churches in Asia."
The 46 LWF member churches in Asia and the Pacific are grouped into three sub-regional expressions of communion—North East Asia Lutheran Communion (NEALUC), West South Asia Lutheran Communion (WeSALUC) and South East Asia Lutheran Communion (SEALUC). In addition, the churches have established the Advisory Committee for Coordination of Regional Expression in Asia (ACCREA) to support the regional expression of communion. The LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD) organized the ACLC in collaboration with ACCREA and the Advisory Committee for Theological Education in Asia.
Rev. Dr Péri Rasolondraibe, DMD director, prefaced his overview of the Tenth Assembly decisions by highlighting a resolution on the organization's identity. Under "Expansion of the Name of the LWF," the Assembly last year adopted, in line with a September 2002 Council recommendation, an expansion of the name of the LWF, so that the full name will be "The Lutheran World Federation – A Communion of Churches." The decision was taken with the understanding that when, for practical reasons the full name is too long, the present name without the addition also remains valid, and the LWF remains the normal acronym.
Central to being a communion of churches was being in altar-and-pulpit fellowship, Rasolondraibe told the ACLC participants. This allows members of different churches to take part in each other's celebrations of the Eucharist, and for ordained clergy of different churches to preach in each other's churches.
Strengthening Ecumenical Relations
Being in communion is not an obstacle to engaging in ecumenical relations with other denominations, Rasolondraibe said. Rather, it is a sure way for strengthening such relations. It is a more binding form of association than a federation. A federation can be cancelled, whereas one cannot cease being in communion, the DMD director observed. He however noted that the LWF allows for associate membership, whereby a member church can choose the churches with which it wishes to be in pulpit-and-altar fellowship.
Conference participants mentioned a variety of established and new communions of churches from which comparisons could be drawn. The Anglican Communion was an "equally diverse" body of churches with various forms of governance, said Bishop Julius Paul, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia (ELCM).
The Wuppertal, Germany-based United Evangelical Mission (UEM), representing a grouping of Protestant churches in Africa, Asia and Germany, has eight years of experience as "a communion of churches on three continents," said UEM's Peter Demberger.
Bishop Bonar Matondang of the Christian Protestant Angkola Church, western Indonesia, told Lutheran World Information (LWI) that the concept of communion was helpful in grasping Lutheran identity. But then it became confusing when the same term was used to group disparate denominations, such as the Communion of Churches in Indonesia.
The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI), which describes itself as "a communion of 11 member churches," is in dialogue with the recently established Communion of Churches in India (CCI), UELCI representatives told LWI. The CCI is the new name of the former Joint Council of Churches, which groups the Church of North India, Church of South India and Mar Thoma Church.
One of the twice daily devotions held during the ACLC featured a "water communion," in which participants went forward to receive a glass of drinking water, accompanied by the words "Receive the life-giving gift of fresh water." The liturgical act was part of a time of worship organized by delegates from India. The theme of the liturgy "Water as Life: Water as Right," was borrowed from a recent UELCI consultation in Nagpur in the central region, that focused on the growing global water crisis.
A major highlight of the ACLC was an evening program billed as a "Lutheran Communion Banquet Dinner," a colorful display of song and dance combined with an elaborate Chinese banquet, presented by conference co-hosts ELCM and the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore. Both churches serve Lutherans whose respective mother tongues are Chinese and Tamil, a language mainly spoken in southeast India.
The over 70 participants in the conference included 46 bishops and church presidents, youth and women representatives, members of regional committees, LWF Council members from the region, mission partners and LWF staff persons. The ACLC and its predecessor, the Asian Church Leaders Meeting, date back to the 1970s. It normally convenes every two to three years.(828 words)
(By Amsterdam-based correspondent Andreas Havinga, reporting on the ACLC on behalf of LWI.
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