The steering group of the Global Young Reformers Network in Wittenberg. Photo: LWF/F. Hübner
“Freed by God’s Love to Change the World”
GENEVA, 2 July 2015 (LWI) – The Global Young Reformer’s Network of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) will meet in Wittenberg, Germany, for a workshop on the Lutheran Reformation. From 22 August to 4 September, this global encounter will bring together 145 young reformers from all LWF member churches and several theology students sent by Lutheran faculties.
The workshop is a preparation of the 2017 Reformation anniversary, which the LWF will commemorate in Namibia. Under the Global Young Reformers Network theme, Freed by God’s Love to Change the World, young delegates will share, learn and make decisions together for local and regional follow-up meetings. They will also visit parishes in the hosting Evangelical Lutheran Church of Central Germany and social-diaconal projects. The program was prepared by the Global Young Reformers Steering Committee, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Central Germany and the LWF Youth Desk.
“This will be a time of intensive mutual sharing and will also offer an opportunity to get to know young Christians from Central Germany,” Bishop Ilse Junkermann of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Central Germany writes in a greeting to the delegates. “You will see how we live out our faith here, in a region that has become profoundly secularized.”
Junkermann also expressed her hope that the young reformers will carry the Reformation theme into the 21st century. She referred to the Lutheran motto, Ecclesia semper reformanda, (the church must always reform). “Ecclesia semper reformanda – this is also the motto that you, young people from all continents – have committed to,” Bishop Junkermann writes. “You are developing ideas and projects for your Lutheran home churches and keeping in contact with each other through your international network. This way you are helping to shape the future of Lutheran Christianity worldwide and to form a worldwide web for justice, peace and the healing of creation.”
The Global Young Reformers Network is a program of the LWF created by youth and for youth. On the journey to the 2017 Reformation anniversary, it wants to empower young people to engage in all aspects of church and communion life. The global network consists of young Lutherans from all 145 LWF member churches and the seven LWF regions.
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