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05.09.2005

11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Stuttgart in 2010

Württemberg Church Welcomes Lutheran Churches Worldwide to Germany

The Evangelical Church in Württemberg, Germany, will host the 11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 2010. The assembly will take place in Stuttgart.

The LWF Council decided on the assembly venue today, September 5, at its meeting taking place in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

With 23 votes in favor, 19 against and one abstention, the LWF Council members accepted the Württemberg church assembly invitation over that of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic (ECAC-SR), presented by General Bishop Dr Július Filo.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia had also invited the LWF to host the next assembly in Colombia. It however officially withdrew its invitation, saying in a letter to LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, it would have been too difficult financially to host an assembly. It nevertheless requested consideration to host an LWF Council meeting.

Oberkirchenrat Heiner Küenzlen, who presented the invitation from the Württemberg church, said it was a great honor for the German church to host the forthcoming Assembly in Stuttgart. He said he was happy to welcome delegates from all LWF member churches to Württemberg. “The Christian church is a global church, it will be good for us to have Christians from all over the world as our guests. In Germany, we focus very much on our own problems in church and society, but we want to share in the joys and concerns of the Evangelical Lutheran churches worldwide,” Küenzlen remarked. He said the forthcoming LWF 11th Assembly in Stuttgart would be marked as a celebration of the Lutheran church in the region and of all Christians.

The Württemberg church was ready to support preparations for the assembly including the logistics, staffing and finances, Küenzlen explained. He cited the good experience with hosting the 1999 German Protestant church convention (Kirchentag), as well as the 1996 European youth conference of the Taizé Community in Stuttgart.

The ECAC-SR Bishop Filo congratulated the Württemberg church for the Council decision on the Assembly. It would have been a “great opportunity for the Slovak church to host the Assembly together with the neighboring and partner church in Germany,” he said. He hoped that the 2010 Assembly in Stuttgart would be a public event enabling the grassroots to participate.

The Württemberg church, with 2.35 million members is one of the 13 member churches of the LWF German National Committee (GNC). It joined the LWF in 1947, and has its headquarters in Stuttgart. Since 1 September 2005, Frank O. July is the church’s bishop.

The LWF/GNC Executive Secretary, Oberkirchenrat Norbert Denecke, said after the Council decision: “The LWF German National Committee welcomes the decision, and looks forward to welcoming delegates of LWF members from all over the world to Stuttgart in 2010.” Compared to the 1952 LWF Assembly in Hanover, which was attended mainly by male delegates from Europe and North America, the LWF has grown into a worldwide communion of churches comprising men and women from growing churches in the South and North. At a meeting of the LWF/GNC on May 30, the other German churches supported and endorsed Württemberg’s bid for the Assembly.

The Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the LWF, meeting every six years. At an assembly, delegates from all LWF member churches take major decisions on the future work and direction of the LWF. They share experiences and discuss questions and themes that confront their churches. In July 2003, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada hosted the Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, under the theme “For the Healing of the World.”

Assemblies of the LWF since its 1947 founding in Lund, Sweden have taken place as follows: Lund, Sweden (1947); Hanover, Germany (1952); Minneapolis, USA (1957); Helsinki, Finland (1963); Evian, France (1970); Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (1977); Budapest, Hungary (1984); Curitiba, Brazil (1990); Hong Kong, China (1997); and Winnipeg, Canada (2003).

(676 words)

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