The Ecumenical Church in a Globalized World

January Term

Because of staff transition in the LWF Regional and Global Offices, this program will not be implemented in 2011. 

Journey with us to Geneva, one of the Ecumenical centers of the world, to discover what it means to be a member of a global communion of churches and the implications this globalization for ministry within North America.

We travel to the Lutheran World Federation, the United Nations offices, as well as many ecumenical venues in and around Switzerland.

• The work of the Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches, and other confessional families such as the World Alliance of Reformed Churches

• The meaning and implications of being a communion of churches in an ecumenical context

• Ecumenical dialogues in pursuit of church unity

• How neo-liberal globalization and empire challenge what it means to be the church

• The particular challenges facing churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe

• Interfaith dialogue and diapraxis

• Humanitarian assistance, sustainable development, and climate change

• International affairs, human rights and advocacy, especially in the context of the United Nations

• How our own churches, and cultural differences, are viewed in relation to other churches in the communion

• Reading the Bible, worship and spirituality in a global, cross-cultural context (i.e., through participation in the life of the English-speaking Lutheran Church in Geneva)