LWF Symposium Explores Trust in the Workplace

Insights from Ethics, Sociology, Theology and Electronic Media

“Trust” is the focus of the second in a series of theological seminars on work and faith organized by The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) on 3 May at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva.

Speakers at the seminar, sponsored by the LWF Department for Theology and Public Witness (DTPW), will discuss theological and secular perspectives on trust in the workplace including in the medical field and in politics. Presenters will also offer sociological and ethical insights, as well the implications of new media.

“Trust is a vital component of human relationships which tends to be taken for granted until it is lost,” said Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, DTPW Study Secretary for Lutheran Theology and Practice, in inviting participants to take part in the discussions, during the regular Monday morning worship at the Ecumenical Center Chapel.

“Trusting in God should influence our desire for building communities of trust,” Mtata noted.

“Of course at the level of human interactions, appropriate regulations and laws should also be used in order to support trust, especially where human beings fail to honor goodwill to one another,” he added.

Speakers at the symposium include Reformed Swiss theologian Rev. Rudolf Renfer, who until his recent retirement headed for several years the LWF Human Resources Office. Renfer will discuss “why we pay so little attention to trust” despite its centrality to all forms of relationships, especially in the workplace.

Rev. Dr Andrea Fröchtling, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, Germany, currently teaching Practical and Intercultural Theology at the University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology in Hermannsburg, will speak on trust as it relates to counseling for people experiencing trauma.

The economic crisis in recent years has put the spotlight on the credibility of financial institutions. In his presentation, “Trust: some theological insights,” Prof. Edward Dommen, Quaker and specialist in economic ethics, will explore this context.

Prof. Christoph Stueckelberger, Founder and Executive Director of Globethics.net and professor of Systematic Theology/Ethics at the University of Basel, will discuss the current political landscape and its implications for building trust in society and in the workplace.

In May 2011, the LWF organized the first theological seminar on the notions of work from a faith perspective, which focused on the dignity of work, to mark International Labor Day. Participants included LWF representatives as well as members of other ecumenical organizations and representatives of the International Labor Organization. The proceedings resulted in the LWF Documentation 56 titled Dignity of Work – Theological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives with a parallel German edition.

It is hoped that the results of this year’s symposium on trust will be published in an LWF series.

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