Most LWF member churches favor Joint Declaration

LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION PRESS RELEASE

No. 2/98

92 percent of churches responding say ‘yes' to justification document

GENEVA, 9 June 1998 (lwi) - To date, 91.8 percent of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) churches responding to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Roman Catholic Church have responded positively. This represents 45.2 million Lutherans in these churches--78.5 percent of the Lutherans in LWF member churches. Specifically, they were asked by LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko in a February 1997 letter to tell whether their church accepted conclusions reached by the Joint Declaration [see below for text of question and conclusions].

As of 8 June, 86 of the 124 LWF member churches had responded to the document, according to an analysis of these responses by the Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France. The responses represent 51.4 million Lutherans (89 percent of the Lutherans within LWF member churches). The Institute's analysis was presented today to the LWF Council at its annual meeting here. Of those, 79 churches have said "yes" to the declaration.

The responses included 19 African churches, 23 from Asia, 30 from Europe, 11 from Latin America and three from North America.

Only five churches (Malagasy, Kinki [Japan], Estonian Church Abroad, Baden and Lutheran Church of Nigeria) answered negatively. This represents 5.8 percent of the respondents (2.7 percent of the Lutherans in LWF member churches). Two other churches, Denmark and Schaumburg-Lippe, the Strasbourg Institute found "difficult" to classify. If these two responses are added to the negatives, it would total 8.1 percent of the respondents and 10.7 percent of LWF Lutherans.

The Institute concluded, "We believe that an affirmation of the conclusions of the Joint Declaration by the Council would be fully in line with the consensus indicated by the responses." The Council is expected to vote whether to accept or reject the Joint Declaration next week after studying the Strasbourg analysis.

Noko announced yesterday that Catholics were at a similar stage in evaluating the Joint Declaration. Until both confessions have reached a positive conclusion, no decision will be made regarding the formal announcement of the Joint Agreement and the lifting of mutual condemnations.

LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko's letter of February 1997 asked the churches: "Does your church accept the conclusions reached in paragraphs 40 and 41 of the Joint Declaration and thus join in affirming that, because of the agreement on the fundamental meaning and truth of our justification in Christ to which the Joint Declaration testifies, the condemnations regarding the justification in the Lutheran Confessions do not apply to the teaching on justification of the Roman Catholic Church presented in the Joint Declaration?"

Paragraph 40: "The understanding of the doctrine of justification set forth in this Declaration shows that a consensus in basic truths of the doctrine of justification exists between Lutherans and Catholics. In light of this consensus the remaining differences of language, theological elaboration, and emphasis in the understanding of justification described in paragraphs 18 to 39 are acceptable. Therefore the Lutheran and the Catholic explications of justification are in their difference open to one another and do not destroy the consensus regarding basic truths."

Paragraph 41: "Thus the doctrinal condemnations of the 16th century, in so far as they relate to the doctrine of justification, appear in a new light. The teaching of the Lutheran churches presented in this Declaration does not fall under the condemnations from the Council of Trent. The condemnations in the Lutheran Confessions do not apply to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church presented in this Declaration."

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