European Lutheran Churches Unite to Tackle Dwindling Membership

Over 90 bishops, superintendents, pastors, and representatives of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches from 23 European countries gathered in Reykholt, Iceland on 8th-13th June for the European Lutheran Church Leadership Consultation organised by the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD).

Under the theme "Lutheran Churches in Europe - Set Free to Be a Healing Communion", the challenges faced by the changing continent as well as an open dialogue between churches to tackle the problems were highlighted.

A former archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jaan Kiivit analysed how the social change in Europe has brought new challenges to the mission of the Church.

Kiivit said the loss of Christian traditions and values in Central Eastern Europe, had not been caused by "progressive and almost imperceptible dismantling" but, rather, resulted from the violent repression within former communist-led countries.

"People are leaving the church not because they no longer have faith, but because they no longer need the church," Kiivit told the European churches leaders.

While Kiivit remarked "a strong craving for religiousness could still be felt among the majority of people", he encouraged the leaders that the changing society is a totally new opportunity and should not be seen as a threat. He suggested the leaders to make use of appropriate cultural context in order to preach the message of the Gospel to the people more effectively.

"Context in which the church has to proclaim the gospel and administer the sacraments" is the key concern of church nowadays.

"Linking church with culture such as music, poetry, and descriptive art ... Particularly important for missionary work was to be familiar with the religious origins of culture; the church had always been a vehicle of culture," he said.

Kiivit called for openness and mutual willingness to dialogue among European churches in efforts to deal with dwindling membership, "What our churches can and should do is to be partners in dialogue."

Rev. Dr Andreas Wöhle, Area Secretary for Europe in the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD) said one of the key issues at the Consultation is the concept of "being a church" and its role in European society.

Gathering representatives from the three LWF European sub-regions - Central Eastern, Central Western and Nordic Countries, the aim of the Iceland event was also to "contextualise" what the LWF communion discussed globally and decided, at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada.

Europe, home to the Lutheran movement, has the highest Lutheran congregation compared to the other continents of the world. However, most of the countries in Europe, where Lutheran Churches were first established, have reported a membership decline, according to LWF membership statistics of 2004, which were released in February.

The LWF Central European region comprises of 15 member churches with a combined membership of over 1.7 million, whereas Central Western Europe has 22 member churches bringing together more than 16.3 million people. There are six member churches totalling 20.5 million members in the Nordic Countries region.