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September 8, 2006
Dear Friends,
This September the ELCA
Ecumenical Life E-Newsletter is celebrating its first full year in
our office. We have heard from many of you throughout the year, and
thank you in advance for your encouragements in the year to come. There
are a few items of interest I want to bring to your attention:
a) First, please note the
multiple opportunities in this issue of E-Life for ecumenical
formation through a seminary essay contest and a January course of study
for seminarians to Geneva, Switzerland. Likewise note new resources,
all of which are downloadable and free, including popular bulletin
inserts for multiple ELCA partner-churches (five full communion
churches, and one interim Eucharistic sharing partner) titled
Building Bridges.
b) Second, the ELCA-UMC
bilateral resource titled Confessing Our Faith Together is in
this issue once more. We encourage you to meet with your UMC friends in
congregations or other ministry contexts, and study this resource. The
bilateral dialogue specifically requests that you send the evaluation
form back to us by October 31, 2006. Now is your chance to tell
the bilateral dialogue of your comments during this time of interim
Eucharistic sharing with the United Methodist Church.
c) Third, please view our
website at
www.elca.org/ecumenical for a new section titled “Your Story.”
This more interactive section asks you to send us your stories of
ecumenical experiences and insights. The section likewise shows you new
opportunities for ecumenical participation.
d) Fourth, our office
(Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations) has undertaken great
efforts this summer to concentrate on our inter-religious work. For
instance, after September 20th you’ll note a new inter-religious section
on our website. These efforts come at a time of increased conflicts in
specific areas of the Middle East.
In responding to these
conflicts, many inter-religious centers in the United States, including
historical protestant denominations, are often thought to confuse
prominent religious questions with current political realities. For
example, does a critique of some international policies of the nation
state of Israel suggest an underlying ill-will for the history of
Judaism? Or, does a critique of specific elements of Christian Zionism
in North America mean one is less committed to the values of
self-critical democracy in the United States? One center over another
is either too progressive or too conservative. A tension rises between
how a center remains informed and fair without becoming neutralized by
multiple competing perspectives in any given conflict.
A conviction of many
scholars is that these tensions are symptomatic of an underlying
conflict in a very diverse, pluralistic world of increased
communication. As Christian Lutherans, we likewise reside in this rich
pluralistic world where people maintain differing and sometimes
conflicting opinions, moral standards, social perspectives, political
allegiances and religious fidelities. In historical terms, this
richness of difference happened to us almost overnight. For instance,
our grandparents wrote letters that took over a month to travel across
an ocean; today, we correspond instantaneously through email and other
technologies. It should come as no surprise that when communication
accelerates, our differences are heightened even more. Constant news of
unfolding events from Minnesota to Syria may mean that differences give
rise to questions of who we are as Lutherans in relation to everything
we witness in the world.
When the world encounters
times of immense change, it affects our self-understanding: “Given such
diversity, what does it mean to be Lutheran?” Along with
self-understanding, growth offers new opportunities to learn about
others: “Given such diversity, what does it mean to be Jewish or
Muslim?” Many times we hear about Shiite and Sunni, or the High Holy
Days, or the mention of land, or the term Imam, but many of us do not
know why these terms are significant, or sometimes even what they mean.
How do we manage as Lutherans to develop informed perspectives about
being Jewish and Muslim amid political and religious conflict?
In light of these
questions, our office is constructing a basic resource, or “primer,” in
order to give ELCA members another opportunity to think critically and
in an informed way about the religious diversity. The premise of this
resource is that in opening windows for understanding, we craft
healthier and deeper perspectives for the present and future of Jewish,
Muslim and Lutheran relations. Our aim is to have this new primer –
Windows for Understanding: Jewish, Muslim, and Lutheran Relations –
online by November 1st of this year.
Finally, as the fall begins
please take time for health and wellness. Visit our website
periodically for timely updates, and call on us where we can assist you
and your ministry.
With every good wish for
the coming month, I am
Yours in Christ,
Dr. Michael R. Trice
Associate Director
Ecumenical and Inter-Religious
Relations
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