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At the top of the agenda will be a decision regarding the venue for the Fourteenth Lutheran World Federation Assembly which is scheduled to be held in 2030.
In a greeting, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay reflected that the gathering reinforces the Lutheran World Federation’s deep ties to the African continent.
“In our current global context, we strive for viable Christian unity and strength among churches,” Pillay wrote. “We must remain faithful to our Christian witness together in a world in which upheaval, instability, and uncertainty are impacting us all.”
Pillay also noted the many programmatic ties and shared work for justice, peace, and reconciliation between the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches.
“We now have a momentum in the one ecumenical movement, where we have strong and wide participation in efforts of mission and diakonia,” Pillay wrote. “It is important that the churches own these agendas and that we continue to discuss what that means in practice, for example, in our cooperation with the ACT Alliance.”
The principles and the practices should be shared and developed, Pillay urged. “The world desperately needs our joint efforts,” he wrote. “We can accept, even embrace and celebrate, what are imperfect but real and diverse expressions of unity and shared service for justice and peace, and the whole of creation.”
Pillay also noted that 2025 is a year in which we are commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. “During this special Ecumenical Year of 2025, whatever the challenges we may face in preserving the unity of fellowship as Christians, we face them together, with Christ calling us to have unity in our witness to the world,” he wrote. “I join you in spirit and in prayer.”
