August 29, 2007

WINDHOEK, Namibia/GENEVA – Theologians from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) participating in the second meeting of the Lutheran-Reformed Joint Commission agreed to the need for further study on the understanding of the Church from the perspectives of the two faith traditions.

During the 11-17 August meeting hosted by the LWF in cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) in Windhoek, Namibia, the Commission members received papers on the meaning and authority of confessions in Lutheran and Reformed traditions. From these discussions, which established many areas of convergence while identifying a number of points of difference, they decided at the next meeting to examine existing agreements among the families of churches with special attention to their suggestiveness for the range of global contexts represented on the Commission. The hope is to commend to the churches additional ways to claim and live out the communion, which already exists among them.

Work in Namibia continued conversations begun at the first meeting in July 2006 in Utrecht, Netherlands. At that meeting, the group identified the identification of a status confessionis regarding racism during the apartheid era as a crucial event in the life of both the LWF and WARC, and so determined that the second meeting should be in southern Africa. Six leaders from five South African churches joined the Commission to discuss the life and witness of their communities in that context.

Among the guests, Bishop Dieter Lilje of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa-N-T, a church of German foundation and heritage, described questions of theological identity, which are arising as his church becomes more multilingual, multiracial and multicultural. Rev. Dr Allan Boesak, a former WARC president, spoke of the "unique window of opportunity" at this moment for renewed effort toward greater theological and visible structural unity among the churches, which are still finding their way amid the new challenges since democracy has been established. His words joined the challenges from Bishops Joe Ramashapa and Ndanganeni Phaswana from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa that the Commission combine its careful attention to theological reflection with concern for the implications of its work at all levels of the churches' mission. Discussion of what forms of Christian witness would be both "Reformational" and faithful to the African context helped the Commission think about its own tasks to help churches throughout the global communions.

Commission members also heard about a pilot project of the ELCRN-supported Basic Income Grant (BIG) aimed at alleviating poverty and promoting development in Namibia. ELCRN Bishop Dr Zephania Kameeta, LWF vice president for the Africa region, leads the BIG initiative.

The LWF and WARC have been in formal international dialogue since the early 1980s.

The Commission's co-chairpersons are Lutheran Bishop emeritus Dr Julius Filo (Slovak Republic) and Reformed minister Rev. Dr Anna Case-Winters (USA). The WARC will host the next meeting in October 2008.

The full text of the communiqué from the August 2007 Commission meeting is posted on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/LWF_Documents/Luth-Ref_Communique-Aug_2007.pdf.

Lutheran World Information