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ILC Board looks toward 2021

Members of the International Lutheran Council’s Board of Directors and staff hold meetings online.

WORLD – The Board of Directors of the International Lutheran Council (ILC) held regular meetings May 26-27, 2020 via online videoconferencing, during which time the board continued planning for the ILC’s 2021 World Conference, as well as received a report on the ILC’s ecumenical discussions with Roman Catholics.

The International Lutheran Council’s 27th (12th) World Conference will take place September 21-24, 2021 in Kenya. Some on-the-ground preparations have been interrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but planning otherwise is progressing normally. The board will announce further information, including the conference theme, at a later date.

ILC Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt holds a Zoom meeting ILC board members and staff.

During the May 2020 meetings, the Board of Directors also accepted the concluding report of the informal academic dialogue between the International Lutheran Council and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU). The document will be now distributed to the churches of the ILC for study and reaction, with plans to make official recommendations on the report during the 2021 ILC World Conference.

“The dialogue groups from both the Lutheran and Roman Catholic sides have done marvelous work,” said ILC Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt of the final report. “I am grateful to them for their diligence, and for the results of their theological discussions. They deserve our sincere thanks.”

The board also considered ongoing membership applications during their meetings, as well as regular business such as reports from ILC programs, organizations, and world regions. The current pandemic has led to the postponement of several ILC initiatives, including regional conferences in Latin America and Europe, as well as classes in the Lutheran Leadership Development Program.

The board also approved an update to the ILC’s Mission Statement, which now reads:

The International Lutheran Council is a worldwide association of confessional Lutheran church bodies and groups which proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the basis of an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God and to the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord as the true and faithful exposition of the Word of God. The ILC exists for the purpose of encouraging, strengthening, and promoting confessional Lutheran theology and practice centering in Jesus Christ, both among its members and throughout the world.

The next meeting of the ILC Board of Directors will take place online on September 21, 2020.

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LCMS delegation visits Kenya

Rev. Dr. Al Collver, Archbishop Walter Obare, and President Harrison in Nairobi.

KENYA – On January 22, 2014, President Matthew Harrison and a delegation from The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) visited the headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya (ELCK). The two churches, which are in altar and pulpit fellowship and are both members of the International Lutheran Council (ILC), were meeting to celebrate a decade of work together. Ten years earlier, in December 2003, President Harrison (Executive Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care at the time) visited Kenya in December 2003 at the request of then Bishop (now Archbishop) Walter Obare.

A choir performs at the celebration of a decade of joint ministry between the ELCK and the LCMS.

The LCMS delegation—which included Rev. Dr. Al Collver (LCMS Director for Church Relations and ILC Executive Assistant) and Rev. Shauen Trump (LCMS Missionary in Kenya) in addition to President Harrison—spent the day with Archbishop Obare and the bishops and bishops elect from each of the ELCK’s dioceses. Celebration of the past ten years and planning for the future occupied the day.

Following the event, President Harrison and Dr. Collver departed Kenya for Ethiopia where they will be meeting with representatives of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.

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