Lutherans lament 'suffering creation' in Tanzania

Member church representatives from around the global Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are in Tanzania for a six-day meeting on climate change and its impact on Africa's highest mountain.

The meeting, which runs until Monday, will take place under the theme of "Melting Snow on Mount Kilimanjaro: A Witness of a Suffering Creation". Members will present and discuss the mountain's snow cap that is melting due to global warming.

In 2007, an ecumenical meeting was held similarly about Mt Kenya's and Mt Kilimanjaro's melting ice caps. Christian leaders had expressed concerns about the detrimental effects of industrialisation in developed countries on ecology, especially in Africa.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania - Africa's second largest LWF member church and the world's fourth largest Lutheran church - hosted the 2007 meeting and is hosting this year's LWF Council meeting as well.

The LWF Council is the governing body that meets every 12 to 18 months between Assemblies. The Assembly is the LWF's highest governing body that meets every six years. The 11th Assembly will be held July 20-27, 2010 in Stuttgart, Germany, and hosted by the Evangelical Church in Wuerttemberg.

Also on the agenda at the six-day meeting is a plenary presentation by LWF President, the Rev Mark S Hanson, who is also the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Former Tanzanian Prime Minister Frederick Tluway Sumaye will deliver the keynote address in a "Plenary on Africa", and delegates will be given a presentation from the 11th Assembly Planning Committee on the progress towards the 2010 meeting.

Prior to the Council meeting, participants visited the work of LWF member churches and Department for World Service in neighbouring Kenya and Rwanda.

LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. It currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries, with a total membership of over 68.3 million.