Connect, Participate and Contribute to the Lutheran Reformation

LWF General Secretary Invites Churches to 2015-2017 Process

(LWI) – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge is inviting churches in the Lutheran communion to “join, connect, participate and contribute” to a three-year LWF process of global and regional initiatives to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

In this year’s Reformation Day letter to all LWF member churches, Junge invites churches to reflect together on LWF’s theme for the anniversary “Liberated by God’s Grace,” which is also the theme of the LWF Twelfth Assembly to be held in Windhoek, Namibia, in May 2017.

The LWF Council decided that the LWF would focus its processes and events regarding the Reformation anniversary during the years 2015 to 2017. Under the anniversary theme and sub-themes, various initiatives will take place with a commitment to express the global nature of Lutheran Reformation and keep churches moving in an ongoing process of reform. Events will also affirm LWF’s ecumenical accountability, so that the 500th anniversary does not undo what has grown from decades of ecumenical relations, but builds on it.

Churches can join in any of the events outlined in the 2017 – 500 Years of Reformation leaflet. These include processes to celebrate the leadership of women in ongoing Reformation, the contribution of young “Reformers” to the anniversary, and a hermeneutics process on Lutheran reading of Scriptures, among others. The leaflet also features a map showing milestones of the global Reformation since it started in 1517.

Junge invites LWF member churches to consider using the 500th anniversary logo, including its short explanation available online at http://www.lutheranworld.org/content/resource-2017-logo

The 2014 LWF Reformation Sunday liturgy is also available online in English, French, German and Spanish at http://www.lutheranworld.org//resource-lwf-sunday-2014-liturgy