Meeting of the Augustana Working Group in Rome

The third meeting of the Concordia Lutheran-Catholic Augustana Working Group (AWG) took place in Rome from 23 to 25 February 2025. Under the chairmanship of Bishop Dr Juhana Pohjola, Chairman of the International Lutheran Council (ILC), and Auxiliary Bishop Dr Peter Birkhofer, the participants discussed the statements of the Augsburg Confession on ordination and episcopacy from a pre-confessional perspective and in the further confessional development. As a guest, Prof. em. Dr Josef Freitag gave an online presentation on the understanding of episcopacy in the context of the Council of Trent. The next meeting is scheduled to take place as a video conference in October 2025.

The Augustana Working Group includes representatives of the ILC and the Catholic Church. This is not an official dialogue commission, but an academic format in its own right.

Father Dr Augustinus Sander OSB takes part in the meetings of the working group as a permanent guest of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU).

_{Photos: Tom Winger}