"Our world is split asunder by forces we often do not understand, but that result in stark contrasts between those who benefit and those who are harmed," the 10th assembly of the Lutheran World Federation said in its final message.

The assembly, which met in Winnipeg in July, had more cause than usual to say so, for the divisions noted weren't just "out there": thanks to the Canadian government, they were inside the assembly. There was a stark contrast between those allowed to attend and the more than 50 participants from poor countries in Asia and Africa who were denied entry into Canada. Over half of those affected were from India.

Red and blue scarves - red for Asia, blue for Africa - were draped over the backs of empty chairs at a special plenary session, in silent tribute to people who should have been there but were not. "As you pass by one of these chairs, you will know you are passing by an absent sister or brother," general secretary Ishmael Noko told the assembly.

Mounib Younan "Thank God the communion of churches does not need a visa," said Munib A Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jerusalem. "Our visa is the Lord Jesus Christ who gathered us in this house." As the leader of a church in an occupied land, Younan is familiar with the power of governments to allow or prevent travel.

In recent decades, the LWF has become more self-aware as a communion, and the Winnipeg assembly agreed to expand its name to "The Lutheran World Federation - A Communion of Churches".

"As the LWF has developed over the years as a fellowship of churches in altar and pulpit fellowship cooperating on a wide range of programmes, this was a natural step," says ecumenical officer Sven Oppegaard.

It also produced the best joke of the assembly: "How interesting," said an Anglican observer, "that you are doing this just when my communion is becoming a federation of churches."

But communion "means more than nice feelings about one another", the message notes. "Communion can make us uncomfortable as assumptions and practices that we take for granted are challenged and we are pushed to consider questions that we would not as separate churches on our own", a point underlined by the assembly debate on gays and lesbians in the church - and not irrelevant to our Alliance discussion of economic injustice and ecological destruction.

The assembly reasserted that for Lutherans justification is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls: "Our hope in the midst of sin and suffering is that God heals us." It rejoiced that the 1999 Joint Declaration on justification means that ancient mutual Lutheran and Roman Catholic condemnations no longer apply, but called on LWF churches to "bear witness with our ecumenical partners to the message of justification in ways and in languages that are understandable, meaningful and relevant" and to "pursue further - together with other churches - the relation between justification and ecclesiology, justification and the sacraments, justification and ethics, with special attention to the connection between justification and justice, for the sake of a more credible public witness of the church in the world".

These concerns echo those expressed by Reformed participants in the Columbus, Ohio, consultation on the Joint Declaration in November 2001 (see Update 12/1 and Reformed World 52/1).

Páraic Réamonn