September 8, 2004

CHICAGO (ELCA) - The Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) appointed an eight-person task force to provide federation members with "helpful background and assistance for discussion within and among member churches on family, marriage and sexuality," according to a news release from Lutheran World Information.

The LWF Council is chaired by the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, LWF president and presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), an LWF member. The council met Sept. 1-7 in Chavannes-de-Bogis, Switzerland, near Geneva, where LWF is based. Members of the Task Force on Family, Marriage and Sexuality are from the seven LWF regions - Africa, Asia, Central Eastern Europe, Central Western Europe, Nordic Countries, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America, the release said. The Rev. Kristin P. Tomasdottir, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, a member of the LWF Executive Committee, was named to chair the group.

The task force will assist the LWF Council, to which it reports, by proposing guidelines and processes by which "respectful discussion might be pursued among member churches on issues of family, marriage and human sexuality, where there are agreements and disagreements." The team would do this by reflecting biblically, theologically, historically and ethically on the practices and attitudes identified, the release said.

It would also give specific attention to whether and how different approaches to Scripture and different ethical attitudes, practices and policies that affect the unity of the Church, could be dealt with. Responding to questions at a news conference, Hanson said the task force was not a decision-making body. "We are not going to make decisions on behalf of the global communion," he said.

"The scope of the task force is to help the communion be in conversation, not to force it to make decisions that would be divisive for the life of the communion," Hanson said. The first responsibility of the task force will be to gather what the member churches are already saying on these subjects and gather resources, "so that we might understand each other's contexts, not just our own," he said.

The Rev. Ishmael Noko, LWF general secretary, said the establishment of the task force would help the communion in its dialogue with other churches, some of whom have already begun their discussions of these subjects.

"This is a very significant process that we have started. It will help Lutheran churches participate in these important issues on the ecumenical stage," Noko said.

The task force is to conduct its work with attention to the discussions on similar issues within the World Council of Churches. It is expected to "familiarize itself with existing complementary work taking place within the LWF secretariat and member churches," the release said.

The appointment of the task force fulfilled the Message of the 10th LWF Assembly, which met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in July 2003. That message called on LWF "member churches to encourage and support one another in study and respectful dialogue on issues of marriage, family and human sexuality, in a manner appropriate to the needs of each member church."

The churches also committed themselves to help each other in "advocacy for the human rights and the dignity of all persons regardless of gender or sexual orientation."

In that message, member churches "acknowledged the diversity within the communion on matters of human sexuality" and emphasized the need to "enter into dialogue to clarify our understandings and learn from the Scriptures, contemporary knowledge and our different experiences." Other members of the Task Force on Family, Marriage and Sexuality are Prof. Otieno Mallo, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya; Dr. Alicia Lee, Taiwan Lutheran Church; the Rev. Manuela Tokatli, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria; Bishop Mindaugas Sabutis, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania; Prof. Jan Olav Henriksen, Church of Norway; and Kristin Anderson-Ostrom, ELCA, Fremont, Neb. The Latin American and Caribbean region is expected to nominate its representative.

The LWF general secretary will assign a staff person to assist the group. The task force will meet in 2005 and 2006, and report on the process to the council.

The LWF currently has 138 member churches in 77 countries, with nearly 65 million members all over the world.

ELCA News Service
Information for this report was provided by Lutheran World Information, Geneva, Switzerland.