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Reformation Is a Continuing Call, LWF General Secretary Junge Tells Council

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LWF General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge: the Council can act as midwife of a renewed LWF. © LWF/H.Putsman Penet

LWF Strategy Will Help Communion Answer God’s Call

LWI Council Press Release No. 04/2011 | GENEVA, 9 June 2011 (LWI) – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge has underlined that the global nature of the Lutheranism should shape commemorations for the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation to be held in 2017.

The Lutheran Reformation “has traveled to remote countries and landscapes, has put down roots and has been incarnated in a great diversity of cultural, religious and political contexts,” Junge said in his first report as LWF general secretary to the organization’s Council meeting being held from 9 to 14 June in Geneva, Switzerland.

The general secretary added that the anniversary offered an opportunity to reflect on the role of the church in society today. “Reformation is not just a thing of the past; it is our continuing call.”

The Council is holding its first full annual meeting since the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany. The Assembly strengthened the self-understanding of the LWF as a communion of churches, Junge said, adding that this Council meeting would have long-term implications.

The Council will consider the proposed LWF Strategy 2012-2017, a broad plan to support the further evolution of the LWF as a communion of churches that has been the subject of wide consultation.

The LWF Strategy will be the basis for annual operational plans that will be developed by the LWF communion office and lays out a foundation for regional representation and gender and generational balance in the LWF, among other issues.

“The fact that we have been able as a communion of churches to formulate the strategic plan as it stands now has been possible because of the constructive attitude of all involved,” Junge said.

“It is my plea to this Council that this attitude be sustained throughout the meeting so that it becomes the midwife of a renewed LWF, which for so long already has struggled to answer God’s call to heal the world.”

The general secretary noted that there remained a “wide variety of responses in member churches” on the document “Family, Marriage and Sexuality,” approved by the LWF Council at its 2007 meeting in Lund, Sweden. The document offers guidelines for respectful processes of dialogue and discussion on this subject, with the year 2012 as a time to review the process.

However, he said that the biblical story of the disciples journeying to Emmaus offered a model for the LWF in its journey as a communion of churches, urging that 2012 be a time of dialogue facilitated by the communion office.

“I suggest, therefore, that our process towards 2012 be undertaken in the spirit of this ‘Emmaus conversation,’ thus making clear that ours is a deeply spiritual discernment of our faith journey as a communion of churches,” Junge said.

The period since the Eleventh Assembly had been a time of “intense experience and learning” on the ecumenical front, he noted. The act of asking forgiveness of Mennonites for Lutheran historic persecution of Anabaptists, and its acceptance by Mennonites, had emboldened the Lutheran Communion to take ecumenical risks, Junge added.

In Africa and Asia, Junge witnessed the results of decades of work that has created understanding among different faiths. However, he said that there was still tension and violence in some settings and he pledged the LWF’s support for churches facing this reality.

Climate change “is not a theoretical question,” said Junge, citing his recent visit to Ethiopia, where he noted that he came to understand how urgent this issue is for vulnerable populations. “For them it is a matter of being able to harvest their crops, and therefore a matter of being able to eat their ‘daily bread.’ For them it is a matter of life and death.”. He added to this dimension the LWF secretariat’s reconfiguration of staff assignments to provide for a 50 percent position to deal specifically with climate change-related issues.

The LWF general secretary pointed to the response of the Lutheran communion to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan as an example of concrete mission. “Seeing the suffering on one part of the body, the entire body reacted.”

Junge said the cry for freedom of citizens in the Middle East and North Africa offered a challenge to governments and churches around the world. “The dignity of human beings cannot be controlled or suppressed in a lasting way and their desire for participation and acknowledgment as full citizens is irreducible,” he added.

The general secretary reported that as a result of the range of resolutions passed at the Eleventh Assembly, the Gender Advisory Group was working on a proposal for gender policy guidelines, while the LWF Secretariat was addressing the question of gender balance in staffing.

Junge noted that major progress had been made in developing the LWF Communio Garden, a Web space that will allow Lutherans around the world to network and share information. (824 words)

Council 2011 News | Photos | Documents

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