On this date in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses, concerning failings he saw in the Church, on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire.

Bishop Whitfield and Cardinal Dew officially signed a document, Dialogue for Unity As Reformation Remembered, based on a statement recently issued in Australia.

In Australia, a Roman Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue team has been discussing ongoing issues for the past 30 years.

The Lutheran Church of New Zealand, as a District of the Lutheran Church of Australia, has been a party to this discussion.

The Lutheran and Catholic representatives on the New Zealand Dialogue Commission are now committed to studying the documents of the Australian Dialogue and presenting both the pastoral and theological fruit of the discussion to the Catholic and Lutheran churches in New Zealand.

In the document signed on Sunday, the two leaders encouraged the members of their churches to work for unity.

"Unity is indeed the gift of God and the will of Christ in whom all things hold together (cf Colossians 1:17).

"We gratefully acknowledge the unity we already share. Together we confess one faith, one Lord, one baptism.

"We encourage all members of our two communities, Roman Catholic and Lutheran, to hear God's call for continued transformation, meeting together whenever possible and witnessing the joy and power of the gospel in daily life."

The signing was followed by a service at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Wellington to mark the reformation.

Earlier this year, the Cardinal and Bishop Mark led an ecumenical worship service at Sacred Heart Cathedral attended by Catholic, Lutheran and several other Christian denominations, formally opening the New Zealand dialogue between the Catholic and Lutheran Churches.

Read the Statement

Source

Supplied New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference
Image: lcasynod.au/resources.stuff.co.nz/supplied

In a joint document — entitled From Conflict to Communion — the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation said there is little purpose in dredging up centuries-old disagreements.

The lengthy text looks at the joint responsibility for the division of the Western Church in the 16th century, addressing the challenges of healing those memories and working together for reconciliation and common witness to the world.

Topics explored in the document include the basic themes of Martin Luther's theology with a view to Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, as well as focusing on five ecumenical imperatives for the relationship between both churches as they commemorate 2017 together.

The birth of the Reformation is traditionally regarded as October 31, 1517, when Luther, a German monk and theologian, is thought to have nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg his 95 theses addressing issues that he saw as urgently in need of reform.

Re-examining the history of the Reformation and the split it created, the document stresses that Luther "had no intention of establishing a new church, but was part of a broad and many-faceted desire for reform" within the Church.

"The fact that the struggle for this truth in the 16th century led to the loss of unity in Western Christendom belongs to the dark pages of Church history," the document says. "In 2017, we must confess openly that we have been guilty before Christ of damaging the unity of the Church."

The joint document acknowledges that in today's world most Christians live in the Global South and thus "do not easily see the confessional conflicts of the 16th century as their own conflicts".

Even in the Old World, "the awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that the struggle of the 16th century is over. The reasons for mutually condemning each other's faith have fallen by the wayside."

Sources:

Religion News Service

Vatican Radio

Image: Time and Date