Greetings from Bishop Henrik Stubkjær
President of the Lutheran World Federation
to His Holiness Pope Francis
Rome, 20 June 2024
Your Holiness,
Together, we give praise to our all-merciful God for our ecclesial journey from conflict to communion, begun almost sixty years ago when Catholics and Lutherans met in dialogue immediately at the end of Vatican II, a journey embodied in the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, and celebrated in the Lund Cathedral in October 2016 together with you. We praise God who alone makes such a journey possible. “For without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Today, we enter your house, Your Holiness, as the newly appointed leadership of the Lutheran World Federation, we consider it a great privilege that you receive us today. There is so much that binds us together. The world needs our joint efforts in proclaiming the life-giving and life-sustaining message of the Gospel of God’s liberating grace and our joint service to all neighbors.
On this ecclesial journey, we are both transformed. At the Joint Commemoration of the Reformation in Lund, we read the five ecumenical imperatives. The second imperative states: “Lutherans and Catholics must let themselves continuously be transformed by the encounter with the other and by the mutual witness of faith” (§240). This journey is one of transformation, not only of individuals but also of our communities. We take the risk on this journey to be shaped by the other, not denying our identity but entering “more and more deeply into the mystery of communion that is the Church in God’s plan” (as your predecessor Pope John Paul II said when he addressed the Community of Taizé).
Over the past few years, the LWF has asked itself what it means to be a communion of churches. We have launched a process of mutual responsibility to deepen within our member churches one aspect of communion: listening to one another, bearing one another in love (Gal 6:2). And the Catholic Church has launched the Synod on synodality exploring how to be a synodal Church in mission. The LWF notes with interest and thanks the recommendations to study theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment” and “the reception of the fruits of the ecumenical journey in ecclesial practices.” One such ecumenical fruit and synodal methodology is differentiated consensus that led to the milestone document JDDJ. We are grateful for that searching and that witness and for the invitation to attend the Synod this year. The journey is an ecclesial journey as it transforms not only individuals but our understanding of how to be communities of faith.
There have been many highlights on this journey. The JDDJ has become a multilateral agreement bringing together Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, and Reformed. Together we are committed to exploring and proclaiming what Gospel is today for people in so many different contexts. How is justification translated today in a world that is at war in so many areas, that is extremely polarized, that is controlled by fake news rather than Good News, and that is caught up in values of success rather than service. Together, we rejoice in the continued collaboration between LWF World Service and Caritas Internationalis accompanying millions of refugees and providing care and support in many humanitarian crises around the world, especially in Ukraine, Syria, South Sudan, Columbia and in Central African Republic. We are also grateful for our joint efforts in addressing the climate crisis and the ecumenical initiative of Feast of Creation, inspired by your encyclical Laudato Si’ and the work of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
And there is much work ahead of us: in 2025, with all the major world communions, we celebrate together our common rootedness in the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea, a Council that confessed the Gospel in the midst of the challenges of its day. We also look very much forward to launching the Sixth Phase of the International Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity in 2025 as we begin to prepare for another significant anniversary: the 500th Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 2030.
The Augsburg Confession was an ecumenical statement in its own day seeking to maintain the unity of the Church. Today again it challenges us to ask: what is confessing today? As a confessing communion, the LWF understands this work to be work towards unity. We strive to live into the ecumenical potential of the Augsburg Confession and to do so with you.
On behalf of the global communion of the Lutheran World Federation, we would like to hand over a very symbolic gift. This bullet has been turned into a small vase with flowers, made by children from the Lutheran congregation in Kharkiv. With this vase, they want to express the hope that no child would die through such bullets and that neighboring countries could live in peace with each other, without aggression or the need to oppress the other.
The theme of our recent global Assembly in Krakow, Poland was One Body, One Spirit, One Hope. The presence of H.E. Cardinal Koch was an important sign for the Assembly. Out of the Assembly’s work, the theme of hope emerged as central for our way forward. In a changing world, plagued by war, a climate crisis whose consequences are increasingly visible, and humanity tormented by populism and increased polarization, we are indeed in great need of that hope that is extended to us through the incarnation of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. I will never forget what Your Holiness said to us when we were here three years ago for our joint statement between Caritas and World Service: it is in times of change that the Holy Spirit has the greatest opportunity to transform our lives and minds.
Our hope is grounded in God’s promise: God’s continual activity of reclaiming and reconciling all things and engaging us in that ministry of reconciliation. The LWF Communion of Churches is committed to this ecclesial journey of reconciliation.
We assure you, Your Holiness, of our continued prayers for you, for your ministry and for the witness of the Catholic Church.