Emphasis on Church Diaconal Ministries at Council Worship Service

“We Have to Go to Heaven Together”

(LWI) – Hungarian Bishop Dr Tamás Fabiny appealed to member churches of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to persevere in their diaconal ministries, and to be sincere and honest in interacting with one another.

Preaching at the opening eucharistic service of the LWF Council meeting at the Ecumenical Center chapel in Geneva, Fabiny said those who wander in their own deserts today “and who cannot find ‘an inhabited town’ include the millions of refugees, who, hungry and thirsty, leave their homes and, if they are lucky, can settle in refugee camps.” Along with the Roma, homeless people and women and children who are seeking refuge, they must be accompanied today by the diaconal ministries of the churches, added the LWF Vice-President for Central Eastern Europe.

Fabiny who is bishop of the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, based his sermon on the first nine verses of Psalm 107. Rev. Marcia Blasi from the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil officiated at the service for the Council, meeting from 13 to 18 June, under the theme “Called to Be Disciples in Today’s World.”

The LWF vice-president also pointed to the situation in secularized societies today, saying there are many people who do not experience physical hunger but they have spiritual needs, and the churches should ask themselves whether they have done enough. “Especially to us as Lutherans, the church of the Word of God, this responsibility is no less than to testify to the Word of God among them, and to testify to the life-creating, new life-creating power of it.” The churches, he added, should proclaim the Word of God “with power and authenticity.”

Referring to verse 7 of Psalm 107, an account about God leading the wanderers to an “inhabited town,” the Hungarian bishop said the inhabited town could be a metaphor of the oikoumene—the whole inhabited world. He expressed his “hope that although we have arrived via different ways from our own desert wastes, we can still meet each other in this oikumene, in the “inhabited town,” where all can find a home as “citizens of the same city, with the same rights.”

Referring to Martin Luther’s Invocavit sermons, Fabiny said that at a critical period of great argument, Luther called for patience and support among the sisters and brothers. In this way, as Luther said, we can “travel heavenward” not alone, but with those with whom we disagree. Fabiny reminded the LWF governing body: “Along with Luther we cannot say less than we have to go to heaven together! There can be, and of course, there must be debates between us, but we have to go to heaven together!”

The remaining verses of Psalm 107 are the subject of daily meditation and Bible study during the Council meeting.