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Heidrun Tobler, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (Natal-Transvaal), speaks with Bishop Dr. Zephania Kameeta, LWF Vice-president for the Africa region, about his efforts to combat poverty in Namibia. © LWF/Florian Hübner

17.07.2010

LWF Pre-Assembly Seeks Greater Role for Young People in Churches

Call for Efforts to Save Economic and Environmental Resources

DRESDEN, Germany/GENEVA, 16 July 2010 (LWI) – Young people who will be delegates and stewards at The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart next week have called upon the LWF to take steps to alleviate the suffering caused by environmental abuse and climate change, seek an end to gender-based injustice, and enhance the role of young people in Lutheran churches around the world.

“Youth very often represent the most important potential for change in society,” said a message issued at the LWF Pre-Assembly Youth Conference (PAYC), held from 11 to 17 July in Dresden, Germany. “It is young people who are generally the first ones to challenge injustice and oppression, and to envisage a different future,” the message continued.

About 100 young adults met here for a week preceding the LWF Assembly and drafted the message after long discussions. Some of the youth, delegates to the Assembly, will present the message and defend it in Assembly debate in Stuttgart.

While affirming the LWF communion as a powerful tool for advocating globally, they asked that the LWF hold “an experimental, virtual meeting of executives during the next four years in order to explore the feasibility” of using such meetings, which also contribute to “saving economical and environmental resources.”

The young adults also want the LWF Assembly to adopt a public statement “addressing greed” and issues related to security for the world’s food supply and climate change. The message further asked that the LWF consider disconnecting itself from banks known to have policies considered unjust.

In seeking “gender justice,” the message said the young Lutherans “believe that cultures and practices within both society and the church that diminish the God-given dignity of women must be transformed.” Systems that prevent women from receiving an education, withhold sex education information from women, and keep women from fully participating in decision-making in church and society should be changed, the message stated.

Asking for more involvement of young people in LWF activities, the message said the LWF should consider regional youth conferences, as a way of providing forums for strengthening the involvement of youth in the churches.

“We do not wish to be mere numbers in a quota but to be valuable and valued contributors to the life and work of this church family,” they noted, referring to the designated 20 percent youth participation in all LWF events.

They young adults challenged churches to provide their “designated representatives with the information and perspectives necessary to enable them to truly represent their churches in LWF contexts, and afford them the opportunity to provide feedback to the church governance, structures and congregations.” (454 words)

Journey | Youth Pre-Assembly Conference 

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