Last week, Church leaders from five christian world communions met at Notre Dame University, USA, to mark their agreement on core doctrines of christian faith, based on the Joint Declaration of Justification.
Originally signed by leaders of the Catholic Church and The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the agreement has since been broadened to include the World Methodist Council, the Anglican Communion and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
All these communions now agree on the core message of salvation in and through Christ.
Standing together on this basis, participants expressed a new urgency to bring this life-giving message to today’s world, while continuing their theological work towards the goal of Christian unity.
From Norway and VID, Professor Stephanie Dietrich, p.t. Assisting Secretary General of the LWF, participated, as one of the five Lutheran delegates:
- The meeting was groundbreaking, marking our huge agreement and looking into what this means for our cooperation now and in the future. We need to define our identity, not in opposition to, but together with the others, based on the significant common ground we have identified - our salvation in Christ by grace through faith alone.