People receive a ribbon reading Welcome in Augsburg CA 1530-2030, as part of the invitation to hold the Fourteenth LWF Assembly in the city of Augsburg, Germany, in 2030. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
LWF Council votes to approve the Bavarian city as venue for next global gathering in June 2030
(LWI) - Augsburg, city of peace: a place where the Lutheran Confession was shaped and continues to thrive today. The Bavarian city in southern Germany will be the venue for the Fourteenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), scheduled to be held in June 2030. “We are grateful for the invitation to gather in Augsburg for this historic occasion,” said LWF President Bishop Henrik Stubkjær. “With the Fourteenth Assembly, we will write a new chapter in our shared history.”
The announcement came during an LWF Council meeting currently taking place in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The proposal of Augsburg as the location for the next Assembly was approved unanimously by Council members, following presentations made by LWF Vice-President for Central Western Europe, Presiding Bishop Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt, by Rev. Michael Martin representing the German National Committee, and by youth Council member Tim Goetz of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.
Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany presents the invitation to the 2025 LWF Council to hold the Fourteenth LWF Assembly in the city of Augsburg, Germany, in 2030. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
Council members vote to hold the Fourteenth LWF Assembly in the city of Augsburg, Germany, in 2030. Among those pictured, Bishop Tamás Fabiny of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
There are many historical and more contemporary reasons why the city of Augsburg was chosen to host the next global gathering of Lutheran leaders and member church representatives. 500 years ago, it was the place where the Augsburg Confession, a foundational document for Lutheran churches around the world, was presented as an attempt to avoid the threat of division within Western Christianity. The Fourteenth Assembly will commemorate that event and its continuing ecumenical implications for Lutherans and other Christian churches today.
As the hometown of the Augsburg Confession, we believe it is the perfect place to host the LWF’s Fourteenth Assembly
Bishop Christian Kopp of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria
A quarter of a century later, in 1555, Augsburg was the city where a vital peace treaty was signed. Since 1650, following the end of the Thirty Years War, Augsburg has been the venue of a unique peace festival highlighting the need for dialogue and mutual respect as the cornerstones for peaceful coexistence among people of different religious convictions.
Fast-forward three and a half centuries, when once again the city of Augsburg was the venue for the signing of a milestone agreement between Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church. On Reformation Day in 1999, in the ancient church dedicated to Saint Anna, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was signed by Lutheran and Catholic leaders, resolving a key theological issue which had divided their churches since the Reformation era.
In an invitation to the LWF to hold the next Assembly, Bishop Christian Kopp, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, noted that “Augsburg is rich in history and open to the world. As the hometown of the Augsburg Confession,” he said, “we believe it is the perfect place to host the Fourteenth Assembly of the LWF in this anniversary year.” Augsburg Mayor Eva Weber also welcomed the global communion to Augsburg, a city, she said, which has long been “a crossroads between culture and faith traditions.”
The 2025 LWF Council meeting takes place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 12 to 16 June on the theme “Be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8)
