Lutheran-Catholic accord on justification to be signed
ELCA News Service, July 12, 1999
BRATISLAVA, Slovak Republic – The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)and a vice president for Lutheran World Federation (LWF), will be one of the signers of the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” on behalf of LWF said Bishop Christian Krause of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick (Germany), LWF president, in a June 29 announcement.
This is the first time such a declaration has been recognized between the two churches. Anderson chaired the Lutheran group that worked with Roman Catholics in the United States toward a document of agreement in the 1970s and 1980s. Krause said the eight people who will sign the Joint Declaration include “men and women, lay and ordained” who “will underline the global communion aspect of the federation.”
The declaration states a belief about the way people become “justified,” or right with God. Jesus Christ won salvation through his life, death and resurrection; salvation is a gift that no one but Jesus Christ can earn, says the declaration. “Together we confess: by grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit,” it says. The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70countries representing 58 million of the world’s 61.5 million Lutherans. The LWF’s highest decision-making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven years. Between Assemblies the LWF is governed by a 49-member council which meets annually, and its Executive Committee.