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Lutheran youth destroy labels to act out their call for greater gender justice and sustainability in the presentation of their message to the Eleventh Assembly. © LWF/Erick Coll

23.07.2010

Young Leaders Offer Themselves as Gifts

Youth Call on LWF to Address Issues of Sustainability, Gender Justice and LWF’s Visibility

STUTTGART, Germany, 23 July 2010 – “We young people offer our enthusiasm, energy and networking skills to assist in raising the profile and visibility of the LWF,” declared youth delegates to the Eleventh Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Assembly as they concluded a creative, colorful presentation and offered themselves as gifts to the communion. “We ask only for the opportunity and the forums to do this.”

The presentation summarized the three issues identified as “important and urgent” by the LWF Pre-Assembly Youth Conference held in Dresden, Germany, 10-17 July 2010.

Calling for priority on the issues of sustainability, gender injustice and the role of the youth in enhancing the visibility of the LWF, youth noted their dismay of “the lack of knowledge and awareness of the LWF, its role and its work in our own churches and communities.” In offering themselves as gifts to the communion, they said in order to be “active and constructive participants” in the life of the LWF, young Lutherans must be given opportunities, resources and information in order to better understand the communion’s structures and processes, they said.

Injustice has its Origin in Greed

Underscoring the Assembly theme, “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread,” youth declared that food security must be addressed within the context of climate change and agro-ecological approaches to food production, distribution and consumption.

Greed was identified as a great problem for the world. “Injustice between rich and poor [and] between developed and developing countries has its origins in this source,” they said in the Pre-Assembly Youth Conference message. “We look for a future in which we all finally share our daily bread.”

Unsustainable methods of production are the cause of suffering to humans through economic injustice and also to creation. “We have to find a new paradigm in which all three pillars of sustainability – society, economy and the environment – are fully integrated,” they said.

The Assembly and member churches of the communion were called to advocate with governments and other relevant parties for social, economic and environmental sustainability in policy and practice. In addition, the youth asked members of the communion to purchase and promote fair-trade and sustainable products. Member churches were urged to invest only in ethical and environmentally-friendly funds and investments.

Challenging gender stereotypes

The youth called on the whole communion to challenge the systems and practices that limit the choices for men and women on the basis of gender. In a powerful display of this message, youth draped placards with common gender stereotypes around their necks during the presentation.

“We believe that practices within both church and society that diminish the God-given dignity of women must be transformed,” said the youth, who agreed with the outcomes of the Women’s Pre-Assembly, “especially on the subjects of vocational leadership, vocational gifts and ordination.” (454 words) 

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