April 20, 2005

CHICAGO – The Lutheran World Federation hosted a consultation, "Deepening the Bonds of Communion," March 31-April 2 here for its member churches in North America. Using the churches' current discussion on matters of human sexuality, 35 participants discussed how the world's Lutheran churches are interrelated around issues of God's mission and justice.

Four Lutheran church bodies in North America are among the LWF's 138 member churches:

• Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (Eesti Evangeeliumi Luteriusu Kirik), Toronto

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Chicago

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (Eglise evangelique lutherienne au Canada), Winnipeg, Manitoba

• Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Diaspora (Lietuviu Evangeliku Liuteronu Baûnycia Iöeivijoje), Oak Park, Ill.

The LWF represents nearly 66 million Christians in 77 countries, including 5.2 million Lutherans in North America. The LWF is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The stated goals of the consultation were "to engage church leaders in dialogue that encourages interdependence and sharing of gifts between and among the LWF member churches in North America, while understanding themselves to be accountable within the worldwide Lutheran communion" and "to provide an opportunity for conversation around the topic of human sexuality and gain understanding of how issues can be addressed in the global communion."

LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko opened the consultation with a keynote address, "Committed to Walking Together: The LWF as a Communion of Churches." He called the consultation "a sign of fellowship of North American churches."

Noko said many "streams" – theological, liturgical and cultural – come together in the LWF, endowed with spiritual and material resources, to embody God's grace, gospel and mission in the world. "There are moments in our life when we must stand up with and for one another," he said.

Noko said he is often asked why the churches in the South are growing while churches in the North are declining in numbers. He said churches of the West tend to long for the days when they could influence the course of world events, while Jesus taught his disciples to be servants and to "follow Christ into the pain of the world."

The world is becoming more interdependent, Noko said. "Every community claims the right to be heard." He challenged the audience to dream of new structures for the LWF that would support it as "a communion of churches."

The heads of the four North American churches were invited to respond:

• Bishop Hans G. Dumpys, Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Diaspora

• Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

• Archbishop Udo Petersoo, Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad [unable to attend]

• National Bishop Raymond L. Schultz, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC)

Dumpys described the flight of Baltic Lutherans to North America after World War II to avoid communist rule in their homelands. The Lithuanian church is "an ethnic enclave" in the United States, he said. Worship is distinctively Lithuanian in language and tradition, but pride in its culture also isolates it from other Lutherans in North America, he said.

Hanson said in the United States "walking together" implies agreement in pursuit of power, but a communion of churches walks together by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit has the power. "Accompaniment" has redefined the way the ELCA relates to Lutherans in other churches and cultures – listening, giving and receiving, he said.

Lutherans are not part of the fabric of Canadian history, Schultz said. The ELCIC is an immigrant church, struggling to know itself as a church in mission for others not just for its own, he said. While churches talk about communion and being interrelated, they are being drawn into the North American culture of individualism, he said.

The Rev. Karen L. Bloomquist, an ELCA pastor and director of the LWF Department for Theology and Studies, Geneva, led participants in a Bible study.

The Rev. James M. Childs Jr., director of the ELCA Studies on Sexuality, and the Rev. Margaret G. Payne, chair of the 14-member Studies on Sexuality task force and bishop of the ELCA New England Synod, Worcester, Mass., gave a presentation on the work of the task force and recommendations it made about blessing same-sex relationships and about allowing people in such relationships to serve the church as ministers.

Schultz made a similar presentation about decisions the ELCIC is to make this summer about blessing same-sex relationships.

A panel of five international guests responded to the reports and discussed issues facing their churches:

• The Rev. Alan Eldrid, president, United Evangelical Lutheran Church (Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Unida), Buenos Aires

• Dr. Naozumi Eto, president, Japan Lutheran Theological Seminary, Tokyo

• Prof. Paul J. Isaak, head, Department of Religion and Theology, University of Namibia, Windhoek

• Margaret Obaga, women's coordinator, Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC) Pangani Lutheran Children's Center

• Dr. Sheila Shyamprasad, coordinator, United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) HIV/AIDS program

Eldrid said it seems that Argentineans who are more exposed to media are more accepting of homosexuality. The churches are more concerned with human rights, he said. "Free trade is unjust trade for us," he said. "We will be receiving companies that will be using our people." American corporations have a history of pushing Argentineans off their farms to exploit the land, Eldrid said.

Eto said the Japanese culture was not inhibited about discussing matters of sexuality until Christian missionaries arrived. The church is working to help society accept minorities, including sexual minorities, he said. The Japanese society is aging rapidly, and the Lutheran church there is challenged to reach out to young people, not only to preserve the church but because the younger generations are suffering with isolation, withdrawal, violence and general lack of spiritual guidance, Eto said.

Isaak said Luther abandoned celibacy but did not address homosexuality. The church in Namibia is developing a "theology of coffins" from its history of death – slavery, colonialism, wars and AIDS, he said. The question for Isaak's church and society is: "What should we do to preserve life and prevent unnecessary death?"

Obaga said homosexuality is a new topic for Kenyans, centered mainly on the condemnations spoken by the Anglican Church there. Talking about sex in public is offensive in Kenyan society, she said. Obaga described the KELC's work helping women learn the skills they need to make a living, speaking out against domestic violence and caring for the orphans that AIDS has left.

Shyamprasad said, "Good people don't talk about sex" in India. It is difficult to convince the average Indian that sex is not "dirty," she said, and difficult for Indian churches to participate in the conversations about sexuality that seem to be consuming other churches in the North. The UELCI is active in an HIV/AIDS education program to address the crisis in India. She said the church is teaching the ABCs of prevention – Abstain, Be faithful and use a Condom – while caring for AIDS widows and orphans.

The Rev. Bonnie L. Jensen, former executive director, ELCA Division for Global Mission, Apple Valley, Minn., summarized what she heard from the international guests. "They asked us to be more sensitive to those in more conservative settings," she said. "Their struggles with sexuality were imposed on them."

Matters of economic greed and militarism may be more important to churches in other parts of the world than addressing issues of sexuality, Jensen said, but they are committed to walking together in addressing all issues. Diversity in approaching the issues is a special gift of the churches when they walk together, she said.

"There are other priorities that our churches are facing than the sexuality debate, and discussion that is occurring in the ELCA and in the ELCIC is not necessarily the driving priority or the main challenge in the other churches," Bloomquist said after the consultation. "Yet I think there was a remarkable spirit of openness from those other voices to say: ‘We understand that struggle'" and a sense of willingness to accompany the churches in that struggle, she said.

North American churches often dread hearing the concerns of "the global church," because there's an assumption that "the global church is at such a different place," Bloomquist said. "In some ways that may be true," she said, but there are more issues with which "others in the global communion can resonate."

"As a communion of churches coming from various parts of the world, we are aware that walking together should not be taken for granted and therefore we have made a commitment that in spite of all the difficulties that we can anticipate and some which we cannot anticipate, we are prepared to stay together. This is very important," Noko said after the consultation.

"For the past three years we have contemplated this consultation. Whom would we bring to the table, and where did we want to end up in terms of the conversation?" said Kathy J. Magnus, Regional Officer for the LWF in North America. Planners wanted "to gather the leaders of these churches to have substantive conversations about what it means to be in a communion of churches as the church in North America," she said.

"The conversation was richer and deeper than any of us had even hoped," she said. Magnus said she was impressed by "the ability of our international participants to challenge us, to be honest about their situations, and not only tell us what we wanted to hear but to challenge us." She added, "We made some major steps toward understanding what we are called to be here in North America and how we will go about that."

ELCA News Service