Lutheran-Reformed talks continue in 2010

There are no “church-dividing differences” between Lutheran and Reformed Protestants, the third meeting of the Lutheran-Reformed Joint Commission has re-affirmed in meetings in October in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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	The commission called for imaginative initiatives at all levels.

“At many points difficult issues run through each of the two families rather than between them, and in other areas there are differences between the traditions which are to be not merely accepted but valued,” the commission stated in a communiqué.

“The commission expressed the hope that member churches would claim as gift the implications of the reformers’ view that there could be multiple ecclesial shapes in which the church of Jesus Christ could be recognized, according to the “satis est” principle discussed at the first meeting.”

The Lutheran-Reformed Commission also examined the factors which have impeded a closer relationship between the two groups, recognizing that they are often connected to local history and current realities.

“At the same time the commission identified a certain ‘ecclesial deficit’ which has beset our traditions from the beginning as an unintended consequence of the freedoms claimed in the Reformation,” the commission added.

“Emerging regional and national church identities in both traditions lost a full sense of catholicity beyond their own borders; in many places it has been easy to respond to theological or cultural difference with a separate church.

“There has been too weak a reception of the implications of the unity of the church confessed in the creeds. As this deficit has undermined the visible unity of the church, it demands not only theological clarity but even more, a repentance and conversion of heart.

“Christian life is life in the church, and the traditions of the Reformation need to embrace anew this common life as integral to life in Christ.”

The commission, which will meet again in 2010, called for imaginative initiatives at all levels – including from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) – to help bring the two traditions closer.