Newly elected church leaders and LWF staff in Bossey, outside Geneva, where the RoNEL meeting is taking place. Photo: LWF/A. Danielsson
LWF’s Retreat for Newly Elected Leaders equips bishops with tools for dialogue and leadership in their diverse contexts
(LWI) - “As bishops, we sometimes feel like we are struggling alone, so there is a sense of relief to discover that we are in this together.” Bishop Ali Tote from Saskatchewan in Canada is one of thirteen recently elected leaders of Lutheran churches around the world attending a 31 August to 9 September retreat, organized by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the LWF Center in Wittenberg, Germany.
The annual Retreat of Newly Elected Leaders (RoNEL) offers bishops the opportunity to meet with their peers ministering in very diverse cultural and religious contexts. Together, they can share challenges, learn from each other’s experiences and explore the meaning of leadership within a global communion of churches. The meeting begins in Geneva and includes a visit to the LWF Communion Office, before moving on to Wittenberg where participants can follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther to discover more about the history of the Reformation.
Bishop Ali Tote from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Photo: LWF/P. Hitchen
Group work from church leaders discussing the values that guide their ministry. Photo: LWF/P. Hitchen
“Our aim is to provide a space for these new leaders to reflect deeply on the values and vision that can guide them in their ministry,” explains Rev. Katariina Kiilunen, LWF’s Program Executive for Capacity Building and Leadership Development. “Together we explore our LWF strategic priorities, in particular the meaning of responsible theology and transformative leadership. We note how these are rooted in the Gospel and Lutheran theology, but also how different they can look in our diverse contexts,” she says.
Among this year’s participants is Rev. Carlos Bonilla, president of the Lutheran Costa Rican Church - one of the smallest LWF member churches with around 500 members and seven pastors, mostly from indigenous communities in the north of the country. “In our context,” Bonilla says, “we emphasize preaching and witnessing to the kingdom of God, which is among us here and now, because this is where the roots of hope are found.”
Alongside Bonillo are recently elected leaders from two of LWF’s largest member churches - Bishop Oscar Lema from the East of Lake Victoria diocese in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, which counts around 8.5 million members, and Bishop Victor Tinambunan, who heads the Protestant Christian Batak Church (HKBP) in Indonesia with over 6.3 million members.
Rev. Katariina Kiilunen, LWF’s Program Executive for Capacity Building and Leadership Development. Photo: LWF/P. Hitchen
Participants walk together after evening prayer in Bossey, just outside Geneva. Photo: LWF/P. Hitchen
HKBP is one of 13 member churches in Indonesia where the faith continues to grow, yet Lutherans remain a small minority in the populous, largely Muslim nation. That presents a very different set of challenges from those facing leaders in the Church of Sweden, which was the state church from the Reformation era until 1999. Bishop Teresia Boström, who was recently elected to lead the northern diocese of Härnosänd, notes that despite being perceived as a very secular country, people still turn to the church for baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals. “I don’t have enough priests,” she says, “and they don’t want to come to my diocese because it’s hard to find work for their spouses or schools for their children.”
We seek to create a place for newly elected bishops to engage in respectful dialogue and form a peer support network.
Rev. Katariina Kiilunen, LWF Program Executive for Capacity Building and Leadership Development
As participants share details of the history and contemporary concerns of their churches, “they discover the rich diversity of identities and practice that has formed and continues to shape the Lutheran world,” Kiilunen says. We know that the strength of a church is not measured in numbers, but in the witness it offers to society today, notes Rev. Sonia Skupch, Regional Secretary for Latin America, the Caribbean and North America. “Our churches are not isolated but interrelated,” she insists. “We are all in the boat together, both in times of storms as well as sunny weather we are journeying together.”.
On Friday, the church leaders journey on from Geneva to Wittenburg before returning to their home countries with new friendships forged and new tools to equip them for their leadership ministries. “Above all, RoNEL seeks to create a place for these newly elected bishops to engage in respectful dialogue and to form a peer support network that can help them survive and flourish amid the demanding daily expectations of their work,” Kiilunen says.
