wfn.org | LWI Council Press Release No.09/2009 LWF Council Unanimously Adopts Statement Asking Forgiveness fr

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>LWI Council Press Release No. 09/2009

LWF Council Unanimously Adopts Statement Asking Forgiveness from
Mennonites
Mennonites Welcome this Move toward Reconciliation, Says MWC
General Secretary Miller 

GENEVA, 26 October 2009 (LWI) - The Council of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) has approved a statement that prepares for
a significant action of reconciliation with churches of the
Anabaptist family. 

With this endorsement, the statement "Action on the Legacy of
Lutheran Persecution of 'Anabaptists'" is recommended for
adoption at the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart,
Germany. The statement expresses "deep regret and sorrow" for the
legacy of violent persecution of Anabaptists, and especially for
the ways in which Lutheran reformers supported this persecution
with theological arguments. It asks forgiveness, "from God and
from our Mennonite sisters and brothers," for these past wrongs
and also for the ways in which later Lutherans have forgotten or
ignored this persecution and have continued to describe
Anabaptists in misleading and damaging ways. 

The statement then makes commitments with respect to how the
violent history of persecution by Lutherans will be remembered,
and how the Lutheran confessional legacy will be interpreted from
now on in light of this action.

This LWF action was based upon the work done by the
Lutheran-Mennonite Study Commission, 2005-2009. Their report
"Healing of Memories: Reconciling in Christ," was received by the
Council, which commended the Commission for "its thorough and
important work."

Receiving recommendations from the Program Committee for
Ecumenical Affairs today, the Council also agreed that the
International Lutheran Council (ILC) is informed about the report
and statement, and that ILC's participation is invited in
affirming regret and sorrow over the Lutheran persecution of
Anabaptists. 

The Council requested the LWF General Secretary to send this
report and statement to the LWF member churches for information,
study and discussion, and possible responses. Both documents
would also be made available to pre-assembly delegates for
discussion at their meetings.

>Celebration and Prayer

After the unanimous vote, Rev. Dr Larry Miller, general
secretary of the Mennonite World Conference (MWC), welcomed the
action in a spirit of celebration and prayer. The July 2009 MWC
Assembly meeting in Asuncion, Paraguay, had warmly received the
news that Lutherans might take such an action and had promised to
"walk with" Lutherans in their process. Miller said that this
request for forgiveness would require that Mennonites also would
change.

"You are not applauding for yourselves," said Miller. "You are
applauding for the grace of God in our midst. Mennonites have
learned from Lutherans that we are justified by faith alone,
because we know that justification produces not only relations
between oneself and God but also communion between the churches."

LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko congratulated the
Commission for its work, and expressed his hope that the
Stuttgart Assembly "would be a landmark," in view of the
anticipated action. "Our children will be proud of this day,"
Noko remarked. He noted that Lutherans and Mennonites already are
working together around the world; this action would move such
cooperation to a new level.

Referring to the MWC global conference in Asuncion, attended by
the LWF general secretary and his assistant for ecumenical
affairs Dr Kathryn Johnson, Noko added, "[We] wept like children
in Paraguay when we saw how the Mennonites would embrace us."

The dialogue reconciliation process began in 1980 during the
450th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, when
representatives of Mennonite churches raised questions about how
they could join in celebrations of a document which explicitly
condemned Anabaptists and their teachings.

In 1980, the LWF Executive Committee expressed sorrow for the
pain and suffering caused by the condemnations and called on
member churches "to celebrate our common Lutheran heritage with a
spirit both of gratitude and penitence." 

In 2002, the LWF Council established the Lutheran-Mennonite
International Study Commission in partnership with the MWC. 

During its work, the Commission had discovered that the history
of persecution consistently intervened in their efforts at
theological discussion. Telling the history together would in
itself be an act of reconciliation.

The LWF Council is meeting at Chavannes-de-Bogis near Geneva,
Switzerland. Its sessions conclude tomorrow, with further actions
on recommendations from the respective program committees. (693
words)

More information on the 2009 LWF Council meeting is available on
the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org

>*      *      *

Around 75 representatives from LWF member churches and partner
organizations are attending this year’s Council meeting at
Chavannes de Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland. An additional 90
registered participants include invited guests, stewards,
interpreters and translators, media persons and LWF staff. 

The 49-member Council is the LWF’s governing body, meeting
every 12-18 months between Assemblies held every six years. The
current Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in
Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer as well
as lay and ordained persons, representing the different LWF
regions. 

The Council host church, the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has
6,818 members, and has been an LWF member church since 1979. It
is headed by Ms Dagmar Magold.

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>Editor’s E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org 

At Hotel Chavannes de Bogis, Tel. +41/22-960 81 81
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Further information about the 2009 LWF Council meeting is
available on the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org