&
OTHER PROTESTANTS LUTHERAN
NEWS
GERMANY MOURNS OUTSTANDING PROTESTANT
Former President Johannes Rau Stood By His Faith – “A Great Friend of
Israel”
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
BERLIN (ANS) - Friday, January 27, 2006 - Germany
is mourning the death of one of its outstanding Protestant Christians. Former
President Johannes Rau died January 27, aged 75, after a long illness.
Rau, who was President from 1999 – 2004, came from an evangelical family, was
well versed in the Bible and often seasoned his speeches with quotes from the
“book of books”. He was affectionately known as “Brother John”.
President Horst Koehler described his predecessor a “believing and happy
Christian”. Rau felt that he was sustained by God and trusted in Him. “This
attitude may comfort us”, said Koehler.
Chancellor Angela Merkel praised Rau – one of her political opponents - not
only for his achievements but also for his lifelong motivation “Reconcile –
do not divide”. Rau had proved to be “a great friend of his fellow human
beings”. And this attitude was deeply rooted in his faith, Merkel said.
As the leader of the main line Protestant Churches in Germany, Bishop Wolfgang
Huber, commented, Rau’s witness had encouraged many in their faith. The
Protestant Church had lost a clear voice in church and politics. The chairman of
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, also praised Rau’s
contribution to church and society.
The Protestant Church in the Rhineland, Rau’s home church, where he was a
synod member for nearly 35 years, paid tribute to his outspoken faith and
political achievements. Church President Nikolaus Schneider also spoke about
Rau’s efforts to bring about reconciliation between Jews and Christians and
Germany and Israel.
In his youth Rau was a member of the Confessing Church, which opposed the Nazi
regime. Later he became a friend of Israel, and was the first German President
to address the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in the year 2000.
He held his speech in German and pleaded forgiveness for the Holocaust.
Israel’s President Moshe Katsav called Rau “a great friend of the state of
Israel and the Jewish people”.
Rau comes from the reformed tradition of Protestantism tracing its roots to the
Swiss reformer John Calvin and others. He eventually found his political base in
the Social Democratic Party. Rau was Prime Minister of the most populous federal
state, North Rhine-Westphalia, from 1978 – 1998.
Former President Gustav Heinemann (1899-1976) was his political
“foster-father”. In 1982 Rau married Heinemann’s granddaughter Christina
Delius, who is 25 years younger. They have two daughters and a son.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
LUTHERANS REJECT CATHOLIC PRACTICE OF INDULGENCE
Pope Offers World Youth Day Participants Relief From Purgatory
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
COLOGNE (ANS) - Aug 16/05 - A Catholic
practice, which gave rise to Martin Luther’s reformation in the 16th century,
has surfaced again as a topical issue 500 years later. Pope Benedict XVI has
promised the approximately 800,000 participants of the current World Youth Day
in Cologne total indulgence, provided they confess
their sins, repent and receive Holy Communion. Non-participants may receive partial
indulgence if they pray earnestly for a courageous Christian testimony at the
mass event.
The idea of indulgence is tied to the Catholic teaching of
purgatory. In short, it means that temporal punishments for sins in the
hereafter can be avoided or shortened by repentance and good deeds in this life.
The church may issue indulgences for acts of repentance. In medieval times the
church also sold indulgences.
Luther protested not only against the malpractice but also against this Catholic
teaching in principle, as the leading Bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Germany, Hans Christian Knuth, points out. Lutherans cannot accept
purgatory and indulgence, even in a reformed modern Catholic understanding, as
the Bishop emphasized in an interview with the evangelical news agency
“idea”.
The teaching of purgatory and indulgence is, in his words, neither in keeping
with the Bible nor the central articles of the Christian faith. The wages
of sin cannot be removed by any human action, but only by the grace of God and
through faith in Jesus Christ. Neither can His redemption be supplemented with
good deeds.
In Knuth’s words punishment is a necessary consequence and often already an
ingredient of sin, as in the case of adultery or drunken driving. The ultimate
punishment is separation from God. But it is not some punitive measure to be
“added on” by God.
Lutherans and Catholics are, as the leading Bishop of eleven million German
Lutherans points out, in agreement as far as the importance of repentance and
prayer is concerned. And despite the clear doctrinal differences Knuth does not
advise young Protestants to stay away from the World Youth Day with a visit by
the Pope.
But Protestants should watch the event very carefully and ask: “What
is in agreement with
the Gospel and the Holy Scriptures?” The Bishop is one of 20
non-Catholic church leaders who have been invited to meet the Pope, August 19,
in Cologne. As the encounter will only last for approximately one hour there
will not be time to delve deeper into dogmatic discussions, said Knuth.
Lutheran Minister: ELCA Leaders' Pro-Homosexual Proposal Ignores Lay Voices
By Jim Brown
April 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) is denouncing a proposal that would allow homosexuals to become pastors in the denomination if they prove they are in a so-called "lifelong, committed, and faithful same-sex relationship."
The ELCA currently has a ban on non-celibate homosexual pastors, but its Church Council recently voted that exceptions to the policy be made to permit the ordination of active homosexuals. The resolution now goes before the ELCA's governing church body, or Churchwide Assembly, which meets this August in Orlando, Florida.
Dr. Roy Harrisville III, executive director of the conservative group called Solid Rock Lutherans, says the Church Council's pro-homosexual resolution is not only unbiblical but also "creates unlimited exceptions to the policy and in effect repudiates marriage." The resolution does this, he maintains, "by allowing exceptions across the board."
Harrisville says this means that "such things will be granted on an unlimited basis, I expect." And that lack of defined limitations, he argues, sets up a double standard, since the Church Council failed to consider whether the exceptions would also be extended to heterosexuals in common law marriages.
In any case, the Solid Rock Lutherans spokesman feels these pro-homosexual leaders in his denomination want to follow the example of the Episcopal Church USA in ordaining practicing homosexuals; but he insists, "the people in the pews do not." While the Church Council may consider its proposal progressive, the conservative minister says what is unfortunate "is that they have misunderstood that the gospel cannot be equated with popular American ideology."
The conservative minister asserts that the Church Council's apparent equation of contemporary thinking with eternal biblical truth is "the fundamental mistake that they've made, and we're hoping to point that out to them." Unfortunately, he notes, the individuals who want to change standards within the church tend to be more politically active than those who want to preserve things as they are.
Nevertheless, Harrisville says the homosexual ordination proposal defies the will of the majority of ELCA lay members and essentially says that marriage does not matter. He contends that the denominational leaders have demonstrated they are out of touch with the people in the pews by taking their minority view and elevating it to the status of policy.
htp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/182005a.asp
Friday, February 4, 2005
GERMANY HAS A SMALL MISSIONARY FORCE
52 Million Church Members – 6,800 Missionaries
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
BERLIN (ANS) -- Germany has only a small missionary force.
The churches have a combined membership of approximately 52
million. According to the latest statistics 6,800 Germans are working as
missionaries abroad, i.e. 0.01 percent.
Approximately 4,000 missionaries are Protestants. Most of
them - 2,900 – are evangelicals; their number has increased by 140 over the
last two years. They are sent out by the 84 member agencies of the Association
of Evangelical Missions (AEM).
The 34 member agencies of the mainline Association of Protestant Churches and
Missions (EMW) have 700 missionaries on their registers. 400 Germans are active
on behalf of the 43 member organizations of the Association of
Pentecostal-Charismatic Missions (APCM).
The number of Catholic missionaries is diminishing. According to the German
Catholic Mission Council 2,818 priests and laypersons were active in world
mission in 2004. The number dropped by four percent in one year.
CHURCHES IN GERMANY ARE LOSING GROUND
Membership of Protestant and Catholic Churches Drops
Tuesday, December 7, 2004
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
HANOVER/BONN (ANS) -- Churches in Germany are losing ground. According to the latest statistics published by the headquarters of the mainline Protestant Churches in Hanover and the Roman Catholic Church in Bonn membership dropped by more than one percent in the year 2003.
The losses are mainly due to the aging population: The number of deaths exceeds the number of infant baptisms. But there are also significant numbers of dissatisfied or nominal church members who cancel their membership mainly to avoid church tax.
In 2003 the Protestant churches suffered membership losses of 1.6 percent. The figures dropped by 375,000 to 25.8 million. The Catholic Church shrunk by 1.1 percent to 26.2 million.
In addition to these major churches, the Orthodox Churches have 1.1 million citizens on their registers. About 900,000 inhabitants belong to evangelical and charismatic churches, the so-called free churches (Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals etc.).
In all, about one third of the German population of 82.5 million is Protestant and one third Catholic. The rest belong to other religions or are unaffiliated. There are more than three million Muslims in Germany, mostly Turkish immigrants.
Church affiliation has dwindled significantly since re-unification. In 1990 71 per cent of the 80.3 million citizens were church members - 29.2 million Protestants and 28.2 million Catholics. During the past 14 years Catholics have surpassed Protestants in Martin Luther’s country.
Wolfgang Polzer (54), is senior news editor of the Evangelical News Agency idea, Wetzlar (Germany)
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