WARC and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) often declare that relations between the churches of the Reformation are, for them, an ecumenical priority. Today, they are giving that priority a new importance.

Their international offices are in opposite wings of the Ecumenical Centre in Grand Saconnex, Geneva, and the two organizations have a relationship that goes back almost to the foundation of the LWF in 1947. They are, to be sure, very different. The LWF stresses the identity of Lutheran witness and the cohesion of the Lutheran communion. WARC emphasizes Reformed participation in the wider ecumenical movement - one reason why it has remained a modest structure - and Christian social and political responsibility in today's world.

The general secretaries of the two world bodies have for many years met regularly. Since 1999, these conversations have been supplemented by regular joint meetings of the LWF cabinet (its senior staff) and the executive staff of the Alliance - to share information, discuss questions of common concern, and coordinate cooperation between the two organizations.

In 1999, a joint working group was appointed by the WARC executive committee and the LWF general secretary, Rev Dr Ishmael Noko.

The group's mandate is to review Lutheran-Reformed relations on regional and international levels, to assess the implications of regional developments for the two world communions, and to examine ways in which these might more fruitfully cooperate. The group, says Noko, is an "important instrument" in clarifying "where the LWF and WARC stand and how they move ahead in their relationship as church families".

These initiatives were in part prompted by the Formula of Agreement signed in 1998 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Christ, and by the 25th anniversary of the Leuenberg Agreement (1973) between Lutheran, Reformed and United churches in Europe (and parts of Latin America). A 1998 seminar in the John Knox International Reformed Centre, Geneva, suggested that, at the global level also, Lutherans and the Reformed were, or ought to be, "rowing in one boat".

The joint working group, co-chaired by Jane Dempsey Douglass of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Guy Edmiston of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, includes members from Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia and Malaysia. It held its first meeting in Geneva in November 1999. Ten years previously, Towards Church Fellowship, the 1989 report of the Lutheran-Reformed international dialogue, declared that there were no longer any church-dividing differences between churches of the Lutheran and Reformed traditions and called for full communion between them. Today, the group affirmed, the important question is how that declaration and call can be translated into practice.

The focus of its work, the group said, will be "on implementation of the positive results of previous dialogues. We wish to accompany and to promote the process of reception of these recommendations, furthering the growing communion among our member churches."

This is not as simple as it may seem. "For many member churches in each communion," says LWF ecumenical officer, Sven Oppegaard, "it would not be natural today to enter into binding forms of church fellowship with churches of the other communion." In some parts of the world, Lutheran-Reformed relations are warm and close. Elsewhere, for historical or demographic reasons, Lutheran and Reformed churches scarcely know each other. In such contexts, as Noko observes, processes of "mutual familiarization" are necessary, as a condition of progress at the world level.

The joint working group urged the LWF council and the WARC executive committee to promote new initiatives of Lutheran-Reformed engagement in all the regions of the world. It asked the two governing bodies at an early date to meet in parallel - at the same time and in the same place - and called for close coordination of preparations for the LWF general assembly (Winnipeg, 2003) and the Alliance general council (Accra, 2004).

Early this year, the LWF and WARC general secretaries sent a letter to all the member churches, sharing their pleasure "in what we hope will be a new step forward in our common journey of faith", and enquiring about the current state of Lutheran-Reformed relations in diverse situations around the world. They asked the churches what further developments in their relations they saw as possible or desirable, and in what ways the two world communions could help in strengthening their efforts.

The working group held its second meeting in Campinas, Brazil, in November. It spent a day exploring the realities of Lutheran and Reformed life in Brazil in conference with representatives of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil and Brazilian member churches of the Alliance.

The all-day conversation was helpful in exploring ways to deepen relationships between churches of the two confessions in Brazil and will feed into the group's final report to the two Christian world communions.

The working group agreed to preface its next meeting with a consultation bringing together representatives of the united churches in Germany and other churches in LWF or WARC membership that also combine Lutheran and Reformed traditions, and developed proposals for a Lutheran-Reformed international study project on structures of church communion

The group will meet again in October 2001, before reporting on the future development of Lutheran-Reformed relations to the governing bodies of the two Christian world communions.

So where do we go from here?

"We are at an exciting moment in our relationship," says WARC general secretary, Setri Nyomi. "We have very vibrant joint staff meetings, and cooperation between our two organizations is constantly expanding."

"What we need now is a 'bottom-up' approach, to encourage initiatives for closer Lutheran-Reformed relations at local, national and regional levels. This, in turn, will deepen the constructive engagement of our two world communions. In both of these areas, the joint working group will help us to move forward."

Páraic Réamonn