World Lutherans: Unequal Standards

In a striking contrast to the sluggish pace of the first week’s meetings, the fifth assembly of the Lutheran World Federation drew to a close July 24 with a last-minute flurry of resolutions and amendments. The whirlwind finish of the eleven-day event was blamed by some on the LWF general secretary, Geneva-based André Appel of Alsace-Lorraine, who appeared to regard the developments with a kind of urbane impartiality, but whose hand seemed to have been guiding the tiller in a predetermined direction at certain crucial times.

Two hundred twenty-one delegates from forty-four countries, representing eighty-twoTwo Asian and two African church bodies were received into LWF membership at the opening plenary session. Largest of the four is the Indonesian Christian Church, with 240,700 baptized members. member churches, debated policies and programs affecting the life and work of 75 million Lutherans around the world, easily the largest Protestant denomination. The highest forum of Lutheranism was held at the French resort city of Evian-Les-Bains on the shore of Lake Geneva—and the location itself was one of the most controversial issues of the assembly.

Opening plenaries were in large part devoted to lengthy discussion and explanations for changing the assembly site from Pôrto Alegre, Brazil, to Evian in France. As a result of the change, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil withdrew its six participants. In a formal statement that church charged that the assembly “became an instrument of political movement at the moment it isolated the question regarding the location from the theme, ‘Sent Into the World,’ and made the decision in accordance with political expediency.”

Mounting irritation surfaced when thirty youth participants stood and put on black armbands to protest part of the keynote address by American Lutheran Church president Fredrik A. Schiotz. He cited reports of torture in Brazil, but also noted that the government had succeeded in its economic policies. The latter reference piqued the youth delegates.

The assembly was originally scheduled for East Germany in 1969, but was changed after the East German government withdrew its consent. During May of this year, mounting opposition to the Pôrto Alegre site was largely based on the grounds that the Brazilian government is dictatorial and uses police-state methods. Dr. Appel said the final decision to change the site hinged on the decision of the Brazilian church to invite the country’s president to the assembly.

Outgoing LWF president Schiotz several times expressed chagrin that threats of non-participation by some European Lutheran bodies had forced the change to Evian. On the opening day, Miss Apaisaria Lyimo of Tanzania vehemently criticized the location change as an injury to the brethren in Brazil and as another example of Europeans and North Americans claiming to know what is best for people elsewhere in the world.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY correspondent Harold O. J. Brown reported that the Brazilian church’s sense of injustice was no doubt heightened by the resolutions and discussions of the closing days which singled out Brazil for condemnation and investigation “while other nations with bloodier records were passed over in tactful silence.” There was speculation that the Brazilian church will withdraw from the LWF to preserve its self-respect.

Unequal standards seemed to be applied in criticizing governments and movements in various parts of the world; delicate tact was shown by the LWF towards the situation of churches in Eastern Europe, and toward problems in Russia and the “people’s democracies.”

Archpriest Pavel Sokolovski, a member of the Foreign Office of the Moscow Patriarchate, was much in evidence at the assembly and at press conferences. His contributions coincided with the position taken by Pravda, most notably when he arose to denounce attempts to discuss the rise of anti-Semitism in the USSR as “cold war propaganda.” The assembly rejected his demand that the situation in Soviet Russia be passed over. The final resolution on human rights expressed “concern” about the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union, as well as regret and condemnation for racism in southern Africa and in the United States.

The Mideast issue and Israel’s right to live were cautiously skirted, perhaps out of deference to the interests of the Soviet Union there, and despite vigorous attempts by a few delegates to have them discussed in a plenary session.

Youth delegates were indignant that the assembly didn’t pass a resolution supporting the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), and had to be satisfied with one supporting Roman Catholic archbishop Dom Helder Camara of Brazil for the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. The resolution described Camara as a “symbol for those who have devoted their lives to the struggle against oppression and inhuman conditions of life.” The World Encounter of Lutheran Youth had earlier asked the delegates to endorse Camara as “a symbol of resistance to imperialism.…” Camara has been sharply critical of the present Brazilian government.

Another link with Roman Catholicism was the endorsement of continuing dialogue between Lutherans and Catholics. Delegates said their tradition and Catholicism should “strive for clear, honest, and charitable language in all … conversations.” Another resolution “gratefully acknowledged” the assembly appearance of Jan Cardinal Willebrands, president of the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity. The cardinal, the first high-ranking Catholic to address an LWF gathering, praised Martin Luther and said that six years of Lutheran-Catholic theological discussions had helped the two churches toward overcoming their 450-year separation. But the prelate cautioned that doctrinal differences regarding the ministry, papal authority, and the role of Mary in salvation still remain unresolved.

Echoing Willebrand’s call for Christian unity was a prominent American Lutheran theologian, Dr. Kent S. Knutson, president of Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. Knutson (who removed complimentary copies of a new, theologically conservative Lutheran bimonthly, Sola Scriptura, from the assembly’s free literature table and hid them under the counter) told the assembly delegates that the positive attitude of Vatican II toward the world is a “good antidote to the negativism which we ourselves sometimes display.”

A highlight of the assembly was the decision to change the name of the Commission on World Mission to the Commission on Church Cooperation.

A delegate from India eloquently pled for retaining the word “mission,” saying that the Great Commission to evangelize and make disciples keeps the Church in India from being submerged in Hindu syncretism. Others argued, however, that the word implied assent to the destruction of the indigenous cultures of two-thirds of the world’s people. Dr. Paul Chauncey Espie of the Lutheran Church in America urged deletion of “mission” with the familiar logic that every aspect of the Church’s task is mission.

A walkout by some delegates was averted the next day after a proposal by Dr. Gunnar Stalsett of Norway was adopted, apparently alleviating fears that mission work was being downgraded. The statement asked member churches to “faithfully work for the proclamation of the Gospel to all nations.” Correspondent Brown reported that opinion differed as to whether the resolution truly represented loyalty to the Great Commission or was simply a sop thrown to the evangelically inclined.

Another significant action of the assembly was the urging of member churches “to declare … pulpit and altar fellowship with all member churches.” Theologians interpreted the request, which would mean mutual recognition and exchange of sacraments and preachers, as a major step toward the goal of worldwide Lutheran unity.

The LWF’s new president, Finnish theologian Mikko Elinar Juva, 51, stated that being a Lutheran means first of all being a Christian. Speaking in the assembly’s final hour, Juva, a professor at the University of Helsinki, said the greatest problem in the worldwide economic gap is the relationship between the poor and the affluent. Juva won on the first ballot the only contested election for the LWF presidency in its twenty-four year history.

LWF General Secretary Appel concluded that tension at the assembly was so high that the Evian conference would be the last of its kind. He said three basic questions remained unanswered: the reason for a Christian witness in the world, the political role of the Church, and the character of fellowship within the LWF.

Recognizing that the assembly lacked consensus—except that the Church should act to change social structures—U. S. staff secretary Dr. Carl Thomas suggested the federation can now move in one of two directions: “We can either recognize the existence of a true pluralism in political philosophy, or we can move in the direction of polarization.”

Chapel Tradition Unbroken

Chapel or church attendance at the nation’s three military academies is “an integral and necessary part” of the military training for future officers, a U. S. District Court judge ruled in Washington, D. C., last month, thus ending—at least temporarily—an attempt by two cadets and nine midshipmen to break a 150-year pattern of mandatory chapel services at the schools.

As a part of the Pentagon’s training package for officers, “its purpose is purely secular, and … its primary effect is purely secular,” declared Judge Howard F. Corcoran. The plaintiffs contended that compulsory attendance at worship services violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and also constitutes a religious test for office.

A. Ray Appelquist of the Chaplains and Armed Forces Personnel Commission told the court during hearings last April that mandatory chapel had an “adverse effect” on recruiting chaplains.

Judge Corcoran noted that the plaintiffs had introduced “forceful testimony …” but failed to show the effect “is anything but slight, insubstantial, and non-extensive” on the military school students. The case is expected to be appealed.

Stamp Of Approval

The spire of St. Phillips’ Church will be part of the design of a stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of the first permanent settlement in South Carolina. The new stamp will go on sale at Charleston ceremonies September 12.

The stamp marks the founding of Charles Town (Charleston) by 150 colonists who arrived in the New World in 1670. A tercentenary celebration is in progress at Charleston this year.

St. Phillips’, the oldest Episcopal parish south of Virginia and a landmark of downtown Charleston, was erected in 1837. Among famous persons buried in its churchyard are Edward Rutledge, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and John C. Calhoun, a senator and vice-president of the United States.

GLENN EVERETT

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.