I just finished my first meeting on the new council for LWF. It is such a privilege to serve the church and the mission of Christ in this capacity. I wish that each member of the ELCA could experience the genuine love of Christ experienced here across the cultural, social, economic and denominational traditions. There are clear and longstanding differences on a whole range of theological and social issues. Yet the unity of the Lutheran World Federation, a communion of churches, bears steadfast witness that our unity comes as a gift in Christ. We need not be of the same mind on any of these issues as long as we together confess Christ. I give thanks for my brothers and sisters across the communion of the LWF that we stand together as a public sign of unity in Christ in the midst of difference.

One final note, I also wish that each member of the ELCA could witness the faithful, pastoral and wise leadership exercised by Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson as he so ably served as president of LWF and presided at this assembly. There was great appreciation expressed throughout the communion of churches at this assembly for his Christ centered, biblically rooted, and confessionally sound and pastorally sensitive witness in preaching, teaching and presiding. His leadership was a powerful witness which pointed to Christ as the Center of life, faith and ministry.

I was in the “Stiftskirche” or college church on Sunday morning, July 25^th singing in the choir again. The bishop of Baden Württemberg, Bishop July preached with the Bishop of Lund and Dr. Ishmael Noko presiding. This was again a deeply moving service, broadcast across all of Germany.

The pastor invited all assembly participants to climb the bell tower following the service. Housed in this towed is an enormous bell which is only rung twice a year. Once at the beginning of lent and again on the commemoration of the bombing of the church and its nearly total destruction in 1944. The day of commemoration just happened to be July 25^th. Many of us were in the bell tower as it was rung to remember the devastation of another era.

As one who also lives on another battlefield where we too commemorate the end to violence unleashed on our seminary campus, it was a powerful reminder of the need to for ongoing attention to our call to bear witness to God’s promise of peace for the world.

I have been singing in the LWF Assembly Choir throughout the week. It has been a wonderful way to engage in the public witness of LWF as we pray together “give us this day our daily bread. On Thursday we experienced the moving service of forgiveness with the Mennonite/Anabaptist tradition. Bishop Younan carried olive oil from the Middle East which was distributed in small bowls throughout the assembly hall for use later in the service.

The entire assembly processed together from the assembly hall, where the formal action to ask for forgiveness was adopted, to the Chapel space singing Veni Sanctu Spiritus-a kind of physical journey to repentance-. This hymn reverberated throughout the tunnel as we sang from deep in our hearts. When we slowly and solemnly gathered in the “Reithalle” for worship, nearly every seat was filled and many were standing in the back of the hall. The Very Rev. Protopresbyter Constantin Miron (which means oil), Ecumenical Patriarch of Germany was crowded into a seat right next to me and the choir. He did not have the green assembly worship book so I stood next to him and said something like, “When you are sitting this close to the choir-you are in the choir so please join the choir and sing with us.” So I shared the worship book and he joined with the choir. He had a wonderful deep bass voice. There we were, an ordained Lutheran woman in a clerical collar and the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch singing praise to God with the whole communion of saints.

At the appointed time in the worship service we were to dip our finger in the small bowl of oil and turn to the person next to us and mark the sign of the cross on the top of their hand and say “God gives you a new heart and a new spirit” and the response was “Thanks be to God”. This was from the Ezekiel text for the day. Several of us were to start this with the choir. I went to begin this rite with the Mennonite choir and gave and received the sign of the cross with oil.

When I returned to my place in the choir, Bishop Miron reached for my hand and took his own oil crossed hand and placed the top of his oil marked hand on the top of my hand and said “with this I seal it”. It was a gift of blessing from this Orthodox Bishop. I received this blessing from one who did not need to do this. I was stunned at his public respect and gift of blessing. It may be that the public act of confession and forgiveness with the Mennonites bore witness to God’s reconciling and redeeming project for the world in a way that this Orthodox brother in Christ extended to me an ecumenical blessing. I continue to reflect on the powerful time of shared blessing and rejoice in the glimpse of God’s promised future of wholeness in the body of Christ.

The message begins, “in a time of ‘grabbing and keeping,’ we once again become aware that true humanity is found in receiving and sharing. We love because [God] first loved us….”

The message is structured by the theme phrase, “Give us today our daily bread,”  as in “Give” and “us” and “today” etc.  and reflected the input of the assembly delegates through discussions and feedback in the village groups, designed to offer smaller groups to enhance group interaction and cross cultural work.

It contains statements about the urgency of the issues that have been on the table in this last week, including a breathtaking range of recommendations. The document urges us to bear witness to our dependence upon God’s grace by offering prayer before meals. On the other hand, it calls upon churches and individuals to advocate for justice for the treatment of women, against human trafficking, and more. Moreover, the document calls upon societies and nations to reduce the carbon content and environmental waste in the same way it calls upon political will to ensure a stable and secure food supply for all people. It calls for help for people with aids, economic hardship, refugees, and much more.

 Finally, the document addresses Lutheran and Christian unity, and urges dialog and common work to continue among religious faiths as responding to the impulse toward human understanding.

It concludes:

“As we are troubled by divisions in and between our churches,
God challenges us to become what we already are in our baptism.

As we, in the light fo the gospel, discover the reforming power of diversity and tension,
God inspires us to repentance, reconciliation, and renewal.

As we dare to face the challenges of giving and receiving, of sharing,
God creates God’s people into newness.

Reported by John Spangler

Facebook page for the assembly 
           North America 

          Communio Garden (English facebook page)

Other websitges:

        website for social media aggregation  www.Communio.io

LWF website   www.Lutheranworld.org

Sample worship video clip:  An Empty Bowl

Elected to succeed Ishmael Noko later this fall, the Rev. Martin Junge is the first Latin American to be elected General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The LWF Council elected him on 26 October.

Martin Junge

Junge was born in Chile in 1961, and it was after his confirmation, in the early years of the military dictatorship that Junge decided he was called to the ministry. A decisive factor in this decision was the spiritual commitment of Lutherans he witnessed during the dictatorship and his work within his Lutheran congregation in Concepción, where he was also the organist.

He studied Evangelical theology at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, from 1980 to 1986. He returned to Chile in 1987 to complete his internship and was ordained in 1989. His thesis for his second theological exam was on the “Lutheran understanding of original sin—catechetic challenges in the Latin American context.”

Following ordination, from 1989 to 1994 and 1994 to 2000, he served as a pastor in Santiago in two congregations with extremely contrasting social and cultural backgrounds. In 1996, he was elected President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile. 

One among several key achievements of Junge’s was the passing in 1999 of the act granting equal legal status to religious organizations in Chile, in which the church played a decisive role. He was instrumental in the organization of the interfaith “Te Deum” service celebrated jointly by the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities every year at the Roman Catholic cathedral of Santiago to commemorate the Chilean National Day.

In 2000, Rev. Junge was appointed LWF Area Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Department for Mission and Development.. He was instrumental in the publication of a seminal work in 2008 titled Not Just Numbers –Examining the Legitimacy of Foreign Debts – (LWF Documentation 53). Rev. Junge holds a diploma of Advanced Studies in the Management of Not-for-Profit Organizations from the Management Institute of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Martin Junge and his wife Marietta Ruhland have two children.
[LWF- November 2009]

The Council serves as the global Lutheran Communion’s governing body between assemblies, and meets once every 12 to 18 months. It consists of the President, who is elected by the Assembly, the Treasurer, who can be elected from among the membership or from outside, and 48 persons elected by the Assembly.

The Council meets every 12-18 months to consider the important work of ministry of care, world service, ecumenical dialogues, interfaith relationships, theology, and to address concerns and issues in the world.  An executive committee meets between meetings of the Council.

This year marks significant changes for the LWF. By action of the Assembly, the LWF Council will be face a new structure, some challenging ongoing planning, and new leadership. As of the conclusion of the assembly, the newly elected Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land will fill the post of the LWF president. In October,  a new General Secretary will lead overall operations for the Geneva based organization.

The Rev. Donald McCoid, an advisor to the LWF and the ELCA’s Executive for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, also said that with diversity of opinions on moral and ethical decisions and maintaining unity within the LWF Communion of Churches, the Council will tend to relationships as well as issues.  Among the issues that are a priority include: global warming, gender justice, peace, hunger, poverty, disease — malaria and HIV/AIDS, illegitimate debt, disaster response, and concerns  and needs that develop.

All who were elected were present for the assembly, and will attend their first meeting at the conclusion of the LWF Assembly on July 27, 2010.

There she was, at the top of the escalator today, reaching down and gripping the handrail, struggling as if something was caught somewhere. I was about to move in her direction with maximum speed when she stepped on to the top moving step andoff she went, now standing up as she descended smoothly toward the crowded coffee break.  A few seconds later, as I stood on the moving step where she had been, it occurred to me that she had just used the escalator for the first time, and this now is the fifth day of the LWF assembly.

This North American was nearly unable to reconize, at first, someone who is venturing for the first time on a pedestrian convenience that is otherwise completely second nature. This woman was probably from Africa, although I am note sure. This was an adventure that I would love to hear her describe.  But this little first time moment reminded me of how important travel is for both those who inhabit my kind of setting and those who live in emerging economies.

But even more important is the realization that every delegate I have met here from developing nations is using their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th language to converse.  Several of those I have met have advanced degrees and teach in the higher education institutions spread across the globe. Bishop Jim Mauney and I agreed that this discovery has(, as it should)  humbled

Youtube LWFweb

Photo stream on Flickr

Stuttgart (July 24, 2010) Five seats for North American representatives on the 48 member Lutheran World Federation Executive Council were elected here following the election of its new president, Bishop Munib Younan.

The five are Bishop Mark Hanson, Bishop Susan Johnson (ELCIC), Ms. Christina Jackson-Skelton, the Rev. Dr. Robin Steinke, and Ms. Mikka McCracken.

The five were nominated through a pre assembly process.