Lutheran World Federation Portrays 'Church' Beyond Borders

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Membership in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) gives the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) a sense of "church" far beyond its own borders, said the Rev. Duane H. Larson, president of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Larson chaired the annual meeting of the U.S.A. National Committee of the LWF here Oct. 23.
The Rev. Hans G. Dumpys, bishop of the Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Diaspora, Chicago; Dennis W. Frado, director of the Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) at the United Nations in New York; Friedrich Manske, director of the LWF Office for Finance and Administration, Geneva, Switzerland; and Dorothy Marple, Philadelphia, also met with the group.
Dumpys recalled the history of Lutherans emigrating from Lithuania to escape Communism after World War II and establishing a church in exile. With the fall of Communism the Lithuanian church is no longer in exile but in diaspora -- scattered across Canada, Germany and the United States.
Frado reported on a visit of LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko to the United Nations on Oct. 6 and Noko's meeting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Frado outlined a series of issues he confronts as staff of both the LWF and ELCA at the United Nations, such as the use of sanctions, recovery efforts in the former Yugoslavia and international arms trafficking.
Manske gave the committee an overview of the LWF's financial situation, saying it had a balanced budget in 1998, but to maintain a steady income from the LWF's 128 member churches is a challenge. He described the establishment of the LWF Foundation, an endowment designed to provide a consistent source of funding for LWF ministries.
Marple, an ELCA member who serves on the LWF Endowment Fund board, said the foundation hopes to have $10 million by 2004. The Church of Sweden has contributed $1.5 million already, and $2 million is expected from Lutherans in the United States.
The Rev. Arthur Leichnitz, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and LWF's regional officer for North America, Chicago, reported on events across Canada and the United States to celebrate LWF Sunday, Oct. 3, and plans to publicize LWF Sunday, Oct. 1, 2000. He said the LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication and the various aspects of mission and development work.
The Rev. Franklin E. Sherman, associate for interfaith relations in the ELCA's Department for Ecumenical Affairs, discussed a new LWF program on Jewish-Lutheran conversations. He prepared a list of resources describing such talks in the United States during the past 20 years.
The committee discussed many of the plans surrounding the signing of the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" between the LWF and Vatican on Oct. 31 in Augsburg, Germany. The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA and a vice president of LWF, is one of the signers, and a delegation of ELCA members will be present.
"There was a well-defined sense that we are in a very opportune time for our ELCA, as members of the Lutheran World Federation, to see ourselves anew as members of a communion," said Larson. "We are part of something more transcending than even a national body."
The ELCA and Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Diaspora are member churches of the LWF -- a global communion of churches in 70 countries representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. The LWF central offices are in Geneva.

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