Towards a common global ecumenical assembly?

Noko also raised a second issue to be taken into account when considering the interaction of the LWF with the WCC. The growth in "theological consensus" between different Christian confessions and communions was, he said, creating a "basis to start rationalising the way that we work and rationalising the structures of the organisations and the agenda that we have". CWCs such as the Lutheran World Federation had an important role to play within the worldwide ecumenical movement, and the WCC needed to find "space structurally" for them: "This would facilitate many things on the ecumenical front." The following year, in an interview published in the LWF magazine, LWF Today, Noko pleaded for international church organizations to continue efforts to coordinate their activities and avoid duplication, given the financial pressures which many of them were facing. At the same time, he stressed that the LWF would continue to have a role in the 21st century, as long as its member churches "live far from each other in terms of distance, culture and time". He suggested there should be increased attempts to "harvest" the results of dialogue on theological and doctrinal issues between the LWF and other Christian World Communions, and that future LWF assemblies could include representatives from other world communions, an apparent reference to initiatives such as the Porvoo process between Lutheran and Anglican churches in the British Isles and the Nordic and Baltic countries.

The issue of the relationship between the LWF and other ecumenical bodies was raised again in the immediate run-up to the Hong Kong assembly in 1997. In an article in Evangelische Kommentare, Gotz Planer-Friedrich, a former LWF staff member, questioned whether the continued existence of the Lutheran World Federation as a separate entity could still be justified. Most churches, he wrote, no longer defined their Christian identity according to articles of faith, but from Christian spirituality linked to social responsibility:

   Since all ecumenical organizations are suffering financial
   constraints and the World Council of Churches is facing a
   restructuring, the Lutherans should make a move and in
   Hong Kong agree to seek integration--whatever words we use to
   describe it--into the WCC. Since almost all Lutheran churches
   are WCC members in any case, this would reduce the financial
   demands they face, and representatives a double burden of
   serving as members of both bodies. (19)

Planer-Friedrich's remarks need to be seen in the context of the discussion in Germany about reforming the administrative structure of German Protestantism, and although this proposal did not form part of the official proceedings of the LWF assembly, LWF leaders were asked at several press conferences whether they could envisage the LWF becoming part of a wider Protestant grouping. Outgoing president Gottfried Brakemeier replied cautiously that it might be possible for the LWF to integrate into a broader ecumenical body "if it does not mean losing our Lutheran heritage". (20) His successor, Bishop Christian Krause from Brunswick in Germany, spoke of the need to strengthen links with Reformed churches, and suggested that the LWF could become part of a wider federation of Reformation churches, which could also include United churches. (21) In a statement referred (because of time pressures) by the Assembly to the Council for action, the Council voted: