LWF General Secretary visits member churches in Central America
(LWI) - Visiting a region facing often diverse and grave social and political challenges, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt is in Central America this week to listen, see and learn from the witness of LWF member churches and the LWF Central America country program.
The Central America region – where the LWF is present both through its member churches and a World Service programme providing humanitarian aid to people in need – is ripe with long-standing challenges, including poverty and hunger, violence, forced migration and not least the increasing threat of a changing climate. At the same time, it is a region where LWF member churches continue to carry out their witness, not least through the leadership of young people, women and men working side by side.
In El Salvador and Honduras, General Secretary Burghardt met with representatives from local churches in both countries, as well as representatives of member churches from Mexico and Nicaragua and of other related agencies and partners present in the region.
Living out the gospel in word and action
Bringing together church leaders from across the region at the Lutheran Synod of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church in San Salvador on 24 October, Bishop Medardo Gómez spoke to the importance of witnessing to the gospel not only through words, but also in action.
“We have learned that as church it is not enough to just remember, but necessary to live out our faith in deed and in action,” the bishop said, noting that the LWF World Service programme for Central America celebrates its 40th anniversary since opening in the country in 1983.