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LWF General Secretary Rev Dr Ishmael Noko and current LWF President Bishop Mark S. Hanson congratulate Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan following his election as incoming president of the global Lutheran body. © LWF/Erick Coll

24.07.2010

Chocolate milk nurtures lifelong relationship with LWF

LWF President-elect’s personal history shapes his vision for peace and justice

STUTTGART, Germany, 24 July 2010 – Chocolate milk was the young Munib Younan’s first contact with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Prior to his election today as the next LWF President, Rt Rev. Dr Younan told the Eleventh Assembly that, in the 1950s, chocolate milk was offered daily to students in the Martin Luther School in Jerusalem. It was a gift of the LWF.

He explained, “The chocolate milk physically nourished us refugees and was the answer to our prayer, ‘Give Us Today Our Daily Bread.’ It also nurtured in us knowledge of the theology of the Lutheran communion; it taught us about God’s love.”

Reflecting on his personal history as a recipient of “daily bread” from the hands of others, Younan said that “we [the LWF] must be boldly prophetic.” He urged the communion to shape policies that will address the world’s pressing concerns, including climate change, illegitimate debt, gender discrimination in church and society and governmental corruption. In this way, he said, the communion “carries her pulpit out into the street and introduces to the world the God of love.” The LWF must continue to focus on shared values “in order to oppose extremism and xenophobia, especially anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”

Younan, who is Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), said that living in the midst of conflict motivates him to work with all churches for justice, peace and reconciliation in their own contexts. “It has taught me how to keep hope alive in hopeless situations.”

Because he lives in a land of conflict and tension, his election as LWF President would be an encouragement to minority churches in countries with other religious majorities, he said. It would also give Arab Christians “new courage.” At the press conference following his election, he told journalists that “we should encourage Arab Christians to stay in Arab countries. For what is the Holy Land without Christians?”

Whether or not the state of Israel has “theological meaning”, Younan said in reply to a journalist’s question, is not a pressing concern for him. Today “our concern in the Middle East is fear of Israelis and fear of Palestinians.” It is essential, he said, that whatever theological view is adopted, “it does not impede the progress of justice. I want justice for Israel and justice for Palestine.”

He noted that both the general secretary-elect (Rev. Dr Martin Junge from Chile) and the president-elect come from two of the smallest Lutheran churches in the world. “In our communion,” he said, “there is no large or small, no majority or minority, no South or North, for we all servants, sharing the resources and gifts that God has given to us.”

As long as there is poverty, HIV/AIDS, oppression and injustice our Lutheran communion cannot rest, the President-elect said. “It will always be struggling communion in serving its God-given purpose.” (473 words)

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