CPCE President Thomas Wipf congratulates Munib Younan on his Election as President of the Lutheran World Federation.

Press release 14/2010

“With this election the Lutheran World Alliance is setting a signal for dialogue between religions.” With these words the Revd Thomas Wipf, President of CPCE, the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe, today congratulated Dr Munib A. Younan on his election as President of the Lutheran World Federation. The Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land was chosen today by the delegates to the LWF General Assembly in Stuttgart.

The Christian churches in the Near and Middle East live in a Muslim context, said Wipf. “Intr-religius and political dialogue is ever and again a great challenge for the life of Christians, Jews and Muslims together. For years Younan has worked “tirelessly and energetically” for peace between the religions. This treasure of experience is a great gift for the Lutheran World Federation.

With President Younan the LWF receives a profile uniting the confessions, said Wipf. Alongside his office as bishop, Younan was until January 2010 the president of FMEEC, the Fellowship of Middle Eastern Evangelical Churches . In 2006 with the Declaration of Amman this fellowship of sixteen protestant churches in 11 countries in the Near and Middle East set up a “milestong for the life together of Christian minority confessions in a politically difficult region”, Wipf emphasized.

The Declaration of Amman emerged among other things on the basis of the Leuenberg Agreement, the foundational document of the CPCE. Wipf: “The new LWF President can now profitably bring his experience from the daily work of the Amman churches into the world-wide dialogue of the Reformed and Lutheran churches.” On the European level the CPCE is a reliable partner in that.

Berne, 26th Juy 2010

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At present 105 Protestant churches in Europe (including five South-American churches originating from Europe ) belong to the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Lutheran, Reformed, United and Methodist along with pre-Reformation churches such as Hussites and Czech Brethren grant each other pulpit and table fellowship on the basis of the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973. The Secretariat is housed in the Severin-Schreiber-Gasse 3, A-1180 Vienna, office@leuenberg.eu, tel. +43.1.4791523.900, fax .110 The CPCE press officer is Dipl.theol. Thomas Flügge (Bern), tel. +41.31.3702502, t.fluegge@leuenberg.eu.

27.07.2010 Thomas Flügge

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