Dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics Has Paid Off‏

"It was one of the most moving days in my life." With these words, the Presiding Bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) Bishop Dr Johannes Friedrich (Munich, Germany) recalled the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) between the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)and the Roman Catholic Church ten years ago in Augsburg, Germany.

In his greeting at a festive ceremony on 30 October in the Golden Hall of Augsburg town hall, Friedrich said, "Today we are celebrating the fact that the decades of patient dialogue between Lutherans and Catholics have paid off and we can now together subscribe to a differentiated consensus in the doctrine on justification.

There are thus no longer any church-dividing differences regarding what is for Lutherans the central core of the biblical message." On Reformation Day in 1999, the LWF and the Vatican agreed - In a festive act of worship in Augsburg - that the mutual condemnations on the crucial question of justification, repeated for centuries, were no longer the subject of present teaching in the respective churches.

The World Methodist Council affirmed the JDDJ at their 2006 assembly in Seoul, South Korea. Going beyond theological dialogue, the VELKD presiding bishop emphasized spiritual ecumenism. "All that is already possible in the broad field of spirituality, prayer and worship must be done together to the praise and glory of God."

Friedrich underlined that "with the Joint Declaration we can say together that it is an indispensable criterion seeking to focus all the church’s teaching and practice on Christ." He added that the festive ceremony was an opportunity for “committing ourselves” to open up the message of justification again and again for the present day.

"I am grateful for the opportunity together to recall the importance of the Joint Declaration and to soak up new motivation for ongoing work on the questions it raises." At the ceremony on 30 October, Bishop Dr Walter Mixa of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Augsburg stated in his greeting: “Of course, Augsburg also stands for an eventful history with respect to church unity.

The year 1530, with the Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana), marked a final attempt to avoid church division between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Unfortunately this attempt failed. Nevertheless, Augsburg does not just stand there as a city of division but also as a symbol of successful efforts to bring Christians of different denominations closer to one another again.”

In his greeting at the ceremony, Augsburg's Lord Mayor Dr Kurt Gribl emphasized that the day on which the JDDJ was signed ten years ago had been a day of hope for many Christians the world over. This day in 1999 had not represented an ecumenism of the lowest common denominator, but the endeavor to perceive and recognize other confessions in their full form and uniqueness.

Not all hopes had been fulfilled since then or "could be fulfilled in one decade after centuries of separation," said Gribl. Yet "many doors have opened," he added. In other addresses the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), Walter Cardinal Kasper (Vatican) and LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko paid tribute to what the JDDJ had been able to achieve ecumenically.

Prof. em. Eberhard Juengel (Tuebingen) delivered the key note lecture on “What Does Our Happiness Have to Do with Our Blessedness?” He emphasized that “for Christian theology -seen from its core, i.e. the articles on justification - the issue of human happiness is unavoidable.” For Martin Luther, the meaning of "God‘s incarnation was to make true human beings from unhappy, proud gods, to people who recognize that they are sinners dependent on God‘s grace,"stated Juengel.

"The gospel of God's becoming human leads the person wanting to be like God back to the humanity of the homohumanus," Juengel explained. He pointed out that "the content of happiness cannot be pinned down. It is indefinable. Feeling happy is not just another experience, it is one we have along with other experiences - thus an experience with experience."

"Anyone who has found their home in truth," Juengel continued,"will no longer ask questions about something like the meaning of life. For the happy ones, there is no point in asking about meaning." For Juengel, “human happiness consists of being able to say an unqualified yes to oneself and to all that is.

Human blessedness, however, consists in still being able to say yes even when you have reason to complain: Ach ja – you then sigh. The Ach [alas] does not detract from the yes. It does not make it a less absolute yes, but gives it depth.”

The celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of the JDDJ signing will be followed on 31 October by a symposium with lectures by the long-serving bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Germany Dr Walter Klaiber (Tuebingen) and the former chairperson of the German Bishops' Conference Karl Cardinal Lehmann (Mainz). Cardinal Kasper and Dr Noko will give short closing addresses.

The LWF general secretary and the PCPCU president will be the main celebrants at concluding festive ecumenical service in the Augsburg Cathedral, which will be followed by a reception in the Michael Sailer hall.