ELCA Takes Step to Seek Agreement with Roman Catholics on Key Reformation D

LUTHERAN ASSEMBLY TAKES STEP TO SEEK AGREEMENT WITH ROMAN
CATHOLICS ON KEY REFORMATION DOCTRINE

The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America today
voted 958-25 to approve a "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification," a statement resulting from years of Lutheran-Roman Catholic
dialogues aimed at healing a major disagreement of the 16th century
Reformation.

The document states  "a consensus in the basic truths of the doctrine of
justification exists between Lutherans and Catholics." Justification is the
doctrine stating how a person is found to be righteous by God, and a key
tenet of Lutheran theology.

The document also declares that the condemnations which Lutherans and
Catholics hurled at one another during the Reformation now "appear in a new
light." Lutheran teaching on justification "does not fall under the
condemnations from the Council of Trent," the council called in response to
the Protestant Reformation; and the denunciations of the Roman Catholic
Church that still exist in Lutheran confessional writings "do not apply to
the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church" today.

The Joint Declaration is being circulated through the 123 member churches
of the Lutheran World Federation, and responses are sought by summer of
1998.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html