June 4, 2007

WHITE POINT, Nova Scotia, Canada/GENEVA – Representatives of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Anglican Communion attending the second meeting of the Third Anglican – Lutheran International Commission (ALIC – 3) welcomed the recent LWF statement on the episcopal ministry, and commended it for study in the context of Anglican – Lutheran dialogue.

The 14 to 20 May ALIC-3 meeting was held in Nova Scotia, Canada, hosted by the Anglican Communion in cooperation with Anglican Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

In a final communiqué, the Commission said it viewed the LWF's March 2007 Lund statement on "Episcopal Ministry within the Apostolicity of the Church" as a useful reference point for its own ongoing discussions on the ministry of episkopé. The LWF Council adopted the historic statement at its 20-27 March meeting in Lund, Sweden, which also commemorated the Federation's 60th anniversary. The English statement is available online at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/LWF_Documents/LWF_The_Lund_Statement_2007.pdf, the French version, at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/LWF_Documents/LWF_The_Lund_Statement_2007-FR.pdf.

The Commission also had extensive discussions on the proposed draft for "An Anglican Covenant" and offered a response from the perspective of the document's potential impact on ecumenical relations between the two communions. The Commission encouraged the LWF to respond to the draft.

As a result of its deliberations on the ministry of diakonia, the Commission said it plans to include in its future meetings a block of time devoted to strategies that would help the Anglican and Lutheran churches work more closely together in common witness to address issues such as HIV and AIDS, as well as poverty.

The Commission members were welcomed by National Bishop Raymond Schultz of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and received a greeting from the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison.

The LWF and the Anglican Consultative Council established ALIC – 3 to continue the dialogue between Anglicans and Lutherans on the worldwide level, which has been in progress since 1970. The first meeting of the current phase of the commission was held in January 2006 in Moshi, Tanzania, hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

Canadian Anglican Bishop Fred Hiltz and Rev. Dr Thomas Nyiwe, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon co-chair ALIC-3.

The full text of the 2007 ALIC-3 communiqué is available on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OEA/Bilateral_Relations/OEA-Anglican_Lutheran-2007-EN.pdf.

Lutheran World Information