These relationships broaden the self-understanding of the church and its awareness of what it means to be Christian in a rapidly changing ecclesial, ecumenical, and interreligious landscape, according to the Kathryn Lohre, executive for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations and Theological Discernment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
“There are challenging reminders that we gain and the insights we learn from accompanying the other member churches that are part of the WCC, and really there’s no better benefit to us than what we can learn in that space and how we can grow in our own ecumenical self-understanding in those relationships as we pursue visible Christian unity,” said Lohre.
Lohre spoke during a webinar on 22 September shortly after returning from Germany, where she attended the WCC 11th Assembly. The assembly brought together representatives of the WCC’s member churches, including delegates, participants, and students. Lohre has deep professional and personal relationships with many of her fellow assembly attendees due to her involvement with the WCC since she attended the 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006.
To her, the assembly was a “beautiful reunion with people and colleagues we had not seen for a long time” due to the pandemic and the time since the WCC 10th Assembly, held in Busan, Korea, in 2013. Assemblies are “the encounter of the global dimensions of the church and the relationships that undergird all of that,” she explained.
“Of course, like any good meeting, some of the most significant work happens in the context of breaking bread together – the meetings within the meetings,” said Lohre, referring to the assembly’s on-site meals. “And you can imagine, after the long time of not being able to meet face to face, all sorts of ecumenical meetings were gathering over meals, which was really a marvelous way to amplify the impact of the assembly.”

Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America delegation to the WCC assembly (l-r) - Khadijah Islam, Carlos Peña, Kathryn Lohre, Vance Blackfox, Photo: Courtesy of Kathryn Lohre
Other, formal parts of the assembly, including the ecumenical conversations among delegates, workshops, home groups, and Bible studies, provided an opportunity for delegates and participants to engage as well as to shape the WCC work until the next assembly. Lohre said the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America delegation also enjoyed opportunities to participate in the business of the assembly, discerning and deliberating together, often in consultation with other member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, another global church body that provides many close relationships for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,.
“The days were really rich and full and exhausting – full of opportunities to connect and engage with people and to meet new people as well,” Lohre said.
In her reflections on the assembly, which she attended as a delegate, Lohre described the elements of the worship service that began each day of the assembly – the prayers focused on the deep concerns of different regions, music, and theological reflections – as inspirational and centering for the day’s business and events that followed.
Lohre also noted the significance of the youth and young adults at the assembly, “who are so engaged already in their work and their ministries and in their self-understanding as ecumenists. They bring such passion, and they were really active and engaged.”
The assembly was also a place to witness the diversity of the church, Lohre said. The assembly was not only ecumenically diverse, but also included “indigenous people, people of all races and ethnicities, people of different abilities and disabilities, and people of different gender identities.”
One of the most beautiful moments of the assembly to Lohre was a ballet dance performed by a person in a wheelchair during a thematic plenary.
“The experience of the assembly can be bewildering, but amid all that was going on I found that there were real moments to invite people to share more about their practice, their expression, how they see themselves and how they live out their faith,” said Lohre.
In the end, Lohre says the best part of the assembly was connecting with people. “We always say that at the heart of all of ecumenism are the relationships, and that is true at the global level as well,” she concluded.