Leading Lutheran Bishop: Christianity’s Future Lies in Ecumenism

The Head of the host church for the 11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 2010 has said that the future of Christianity can only be ecumenical.

|TOP|Bishop Frank Otfried July, of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg has been said to be anticipating a major outcome for ecumenism from the LWF event which will take place in Stuttgart, Germany.

During his first visit to the LWF Geneva Secretariat on 7th April, the bishop said, “We want Stuttgart to constitute a semicolon for our common ecumenical future in the world.”

Bishop July has chosen to highlight his church’s ecumenical and mission commitments. He explained that the church hoped to open its doors to a huge variety of people from diverse nationalities, backgrounds and religious convictions and create a festival of faith.

Vitally important, he said, was that reconciled diversity was made visible, and he called for a new door to be opened in the ecumenical history of the LWF.

Bishop July has overseen the Württemberg Church since July 2005. It has 2.35 million members and is the third largest LWF member church in Germany, and was a founding member of the Federation in 1947.

|AD|He commented, “We want our hospitality in Stuttgart to underline that we still have an ecumenical vision and that, as a regional church, we want to make our contribution to promoting this vision.”

He said that he hoped his church would open its eyes once again to see that “that we are a part of a worldwide communion endeavouring to witness to the gospel in this world, and find answers to social questions on the basis of the Lutheran confession.”

“We have had a lot of experience with big events in Stuttgart,” Bishop July explained as he told that the church had already appointed a working group for the assembly’s local preparations. He was referring to the 28th German Protestant Convention that was held in Stuttgart in 1999.

Bishop July also met with representatives of the Ecumenical Centre-based Conference of European Churches (CEC), World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and World Council of Churches (WCC).

In addition, over the coming months he hopes to meet with Cardinal Kasper, who is the President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries across the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.