Communion in diversity
The LWF Council agrees on a process for member churches to study the self-understanding document
Geneva, 19.06.2015.
With gratitude, the LWF Council received the study document “The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion” and agreed on a process to help member churches engage with it in preparation for the 2017 Assembly.
The Council asked the Communion Office (CO) to prepare a process with questions and deadlines for further receiving the document in the LWF member churches. The CO will send the document to the churches for further study and encourages the churches to discuss it at pre-assemblies in preparation for the Twelfth Assembly in 2017 in Windhoek, Namibia.
The LWF Council also expressed its gratitude to the seven-person study group that prepared this document under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Minna Hietamäki, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The year-and-a-half study process included joint reflection and consultations with representatives from the LWF regions.
The 2013 Council meeting asked the LWF General Secretary to set up a study group to involve member churches in a discussion of how to live with differences while not losing the essence of the church communion.
The study document defines communion as a gift and as a task that must be lived out in both what unites and what differs. In explaining what the task entails, it analyzes the questions of autonomy and responsibility, joint decision-making, disagreements, and those resources that can help realize life in the context of communion in diversity.
The plenary discussions that followed Hietamäki’s presentation focused on the relevance of the document to the communion and its churches, and on the process of discussing it further in the context of the respective church.
A good theological framework
Responding to the observation that there is no concrete proposal for how to discuss and adapt the document in the local context, Hietamäki noted that the group’s mandate was not directed at the process that would take place after the adoption of this document by the Council, but rather at the document serving as an initiator of discussions. She expressed the hope that the Council would offer more concrete proposals for how to proceed further with this document.
Rev. Dr. Robin J. Steinke of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said that she supports the enthusiasm expressed in the report. She said that the document offers perspectives on how the LWF engages in stable relationships, and also raises questions about what this actually means for the member churches.
“It is a good theological framework that guides our theological understanding,” commented Rev. Dr. Rafael Malpica-Padilla of the ELCA. Referring to the emphasis on “word and sacrament” as events in communion, he said it is important in this connection “to think about the daily life of the member churches”. More attention should be paid to questions directed at the further discussion of the document, including mutual responsibility and the role of the CO, he added.
On the reception process, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, Dr. Ndanganeni P. Phaswana, suggested that this document should be distributed to seminaries that train pastors, and that ways should be found to organize meetings to promote the document. “Let us begin to introduce it now and continue to acquaint our communion with it. A journey of a million steps begins with one step forward,” he said.
Rev. Dr. Gloria Rojas Vargas of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile supported the suggestion to use the pre-assemblies “to gather the responses of our churches and speak about them at the 2017 Assembly”.
Responsibility in communion
Prof. Bernd Oberdorfer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Germany, expressed his high appreciation of the study document, saying that he sees it as a reminder of the gift of communion. He said that the central questions for the churches must be: “How do you [the churches] want to realize your responsibility in the Lutheran communion, and how should this responsibility be reflected in your decisions and communication?”
Colleen E. Cunningham of the Moravian Church in South Africa emphasized her high appreciation of the document “for its approach to conflict and conflict resolution. Let us put this document forward in our regional meetings. It will give us time to reflect on it and to look at it in our own context”.
The self-understanding document develops a theologically grounded approach to how to experience the gift of communion. It also affirms the shared convictions that are based on the Lutheran confessional writings and the Holy Scriptures, and emphasizes the questions that require further conversation.
Editorial note:
The texts in the LWF document “The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion” discuss what the concept of communion within the LWF entails. For this purpose, a working group was set up within the LWF that studied the theological meaning of the concept of communion, as well as the impact of communion on global dynamics, the insights of Lutheran ecclesiology in the light of the event of the Reformation, and also the significance of fellowship in the LWF’s bilateral relations with partners, and so on.
The result is the document “The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion” (document in English), which is officially planned to be published in October 2015.
Translated from English by ELCLAbroad pastor Ieva Puriņa
Proofreader Mag. Theol. Milda Klampe
Source: Lutheran World Federation