This LWF/Department of Theology and Studies (DTS) study program seeks to interpret, from a Lutheran perspective, the confession of faith in the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church,” as stated in the Nicene Creed.
- How is this vision of the Church relevant for Lutherans today in their different cultural, religious and social contexts?
- What is the Church’s role in salvation?
- What is the significance of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” in dialogues between different denominations?
Conferences
Bossey, Switzerland | June 2008
The first conference within the framework of the study program The One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: Lutheran Perspectives of the Department of Theology and Studies was held in June 2008 at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey.
Participants underlined the importance of worship as the core of the Church and stressed the Church’s ongoing missionary task. The international group of theologians urged congregations to profess more often the commonly shared Nicene Creed as a visible and audible sign of communion with Christians from other confessions.
The papers presented at this consultation were published in May 2009 in the LWF Studies series 01/2009, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Some Lutheran and Ecumenical Perspectives. Contributors include: Eve-Marie Becker (Denmark), Song-Mee Chung (Malaysia), Michel Grandjean (Switzerland), Minna Hietamäki (Finland), Eberhard Jüngel (Germany), Nelson Kilpp (Brazil), Samuel Ngun Ling (Myanmar), Dimitrios Moschos (Greece), Cheryl M. Peterson (USA), Johanna Rahner (Germany), Philipp Stoellger (Germany), and Yonas Yigezu (Ethiopia).
Münster, Germany | June 2010
A second meeting within the framework of the study program The One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: Lutheran Perspectives was convened by the Department for Theology and Studies and the Ecumenical Institute of the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Westfälische Wilhelms-University.
Eighteen theologians from around the world, met 4-7 June 2010, in Münster, Germany, sharing insights and deliberating on what it means for Lutherans to realize and live out the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church and issued a communiqué on Lutheran ecclesiology today.
Formed to Embody and Live Out What It Means to be the Church
