Posted on 01/14/2016 11:36:04 AM PST by ebb tide
GENEVA/VATICAN CITY, 11 January 2016 - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) have invited Lutheran churches and Catholic bishops’ conferences across the world to make use of a jointly-developed Common Prayer to prepare commemorations for the 500 years of the Reformation in 2017.
In a joint letter today to the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences and to LWF member church bishops, presidents and other leaders, LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge and PCPCU President Kurt Cardinal Koch introduce the Common Prayer for Lutheran-Catholic common commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. The document is the first jointly developed liturgical order prepared by a liturgical task force of the Lutheran Catholic Commission on Unity of the LWF and PCPCU. It is based on the recent study report From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017, and is calling the Catholic and Lutheran communities for joint prayer in this commemoration.
The Common Prayer includes materials that can be adapted to local liturgical and musical traditions of churches in the two Christian traditions.
â€This common prayer marks a very special moment in our common journey from conflict to communion. We are grateful for being able to invite you to participate in this journey in witnessing to the grace of God in the world,†Junge and Koch write to the Lutheran and Catholic Church leaders.
The two leaders express gratitude for the many joint initiatives and commitment by Catholics and Lutherans in studying together the document From Conflict to Communion, in which the two church bodies describe together for the first time the history of the 16th century Reformation and its intentions. The report developed by the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity in 2013 has been widely distributed to Catholic and Lutheran communities. It is available in the four LWF’s official languages – English, French, German and Spanish – and has been translated into several other national and regional languages.
The Common Prayer is a practical guide to a process of worship for a joint Catholic-Lutheran commemoration of 500 years of the Reformation. It is structured around the themes of thanksgiving, repentance and commitment to common witness. The aim is to express the gifts of the Reformation and ask forgiveness for the division perpetuated by Christians from the two traditions.
â€It offers an opportunity to look back in thanksgiving and confession and look ahead, committing ourselves to common witness and continuing journey,†states the preface of the Common Prayer.
It offers suggestions of how Catholic and Lutherans should preside and read together at a common prayer service. Examples are provided of hymns and songs from a variety of multicultural contexts, as well as biblical and confessional readings that reflect mutual joy and repentance, and the desire to serve and witness to the world together.
In their joint letter, Junge and Koch remind the church leaders that the year 2017 also marks the 50 years of global ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans, which includes other major study processes and documents. For the LWF, the year coincides with its Twelfth Assembly, to be held in Windhoek, Namibia, under the theme â€Liberated by God’s Grace.â€
In October this year, the LWF and PCPCU will host a joint Ecumenical Commemoration event in Lund, Sweden, where the LWF was founded in 1947.
I feel like throwing up.
So, uh, there already is a common prayer going on.
“The Common Prayer includes materials that can be adapted to local liturgical and musical traditions of churches in the two Christian traditions.”
Nice, so the Lutherans can sing it as a joyous hymn, while the Catholics turn it into a mournful dirge :)
Go ahead and be joyous all the time. “Sin and sin boldly”, Martin Luther.
Lutheran singing is one of those treasures that I had to leave home to realize. Growing up Lutheran, it was just assumed you could sing in three part harmony and bellow like a bull.
Just don’t ask us for solos
https://sites.google.com/site/srwsite/Home/lutheran-music
For the Catholic-haters nothing will be good enough.
So, it's a waste of breath posting to them. I'm glad you did though! :o)
HOWEVER, I didn't know that about the rosary. So, those Protestants are saying the "Hail Mary."
It was part of the Jewish culture to turn to the King's mother for help when the King was recalitrant about something. Jesus, being King, has His mother to whom we can speak with...as that is the essence of prayer.
I've "talked" with my family for years. :o)
Sometimes, there is no perfect action or sinless choice. Do you permit an evil government to continue or do you fight that government?
Romans 13:1 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."
If you are going to oppose the evil government, then you would be following Martin Luther's advice to "sin boldly". When there is no perfect choice, make a decision and follow through.
1. joyful mysteries
2. glorious mysteries
3. lumious mysteries
4. sorrowful mysteries.
It will remain a MYSTERY to me.
Sorry.
I love Lutheran hymnody. ‘Course my Latin choir doesn’t sing it, but it does show up in the Shape Note hymnals.
You don’t perhaps sing shapenote, do you?
My beloved don-o is a shapenote empresario.(sp?)
!
I don’t know about the luminous but they do the other mysteries.
Since when did opposing "evil governments" become sinful?
Despite my appreciation and respect for Lutheran liturgical sensibilities, I always feel a sense of disgust every year when Reformation Sunday rolls around.
If there’s any liturgical color associated with that day it should be black.
No Catholic in his right mind should celebrate it. At all.
I am sure we do. As the Keillor piece says, I grew up singing in a way that made my choir teacher very happy in school.
We don’t do chanting very well though.
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An old friend and I went to the Holy Land in 2011 with Steve and Janet Ray. We were priviledged to go to where Jesus transfigured Himself. It was MOST moving.
It should be black, associated with death. I look at Luther in those terms. He sounded the death knell in his "creation" of Protestantism. Non-Catholics are NOT "protesting" anymore but the name lingers on and on and on.
The Episcopalians began their slide (my opinion only) with female priests and now allow same-gender marriage. What's next? I shudder to think.
A few practice sessions, with the best and loudest voices up front and you will chant like a proverbian Gregorian monk!
The Reformation was a tragedy. If there is to be a common prayer, it should be one of penance and celebrated with black vestments.
Not the LCMS. But a giant step toward the apostate one world religion Catholics, used to be Lutherans. Who joins next?
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