Enhancing advocacy and worship

Appointments of Dr Ojot Miru Ojulu and Rev. Rebecca Ruggaber

(LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for Theology and Public Witness (DTPW) is expanding its worship and advocacy work. Dr Ojot Ojulu, a member of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), started work on 1 March as the LWF’s new Advocacy Officer in the Office for International Affairs and Human Rights. In this newly created position, he will help develop policy and carry out advocacy, one of the cross-cutting priorities for the LWF.

“LWF member churches and country programs in several parts of the world are living amidst situations of violence and/or gross violations of human rights,” says Ralston Deffenbaugh, Assistant General Secretary for International Affairs and Human Rights. “The major challenge of this position is to figure out which interventions will be most effective in raising the voice of our constituency on the international stage in Geneva,” he adds.

Ojulu, who holds a PhD in Peace Studies from Bradford University in the United Kingdom, was president of the Gambella Synod of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). He has published in the field of peace studies, war, conflict and political violence. At the LWF Dr Ojulu will focus his attention on, among other topics, land justice, which is also an issue in the Gambella region where he comes from, as well as in many other parts of the world.

Also joining the team in the DTPW is the Rev. Rebecca Ruggaber, who as of 1 March assumed the position of Secretary for Liturgy and Worship. She trained in the church and graduated from Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany, in Theology. Recently ordained, Rev. Ruggaber has been seconded from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg, Germany.

“The living variety and deep connection between the communion of churches can be seen and felt in services and worship,” Rev. Dr Simone Sinn, Study Secretary for Public Theology, says. “Therefore DTPW is very grateful that a new colleague will attend to questions of worship with theological competence, liturgical diligence and creativity.”