ELCA and German church group sign agreement

ELCA and Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) leaders signed an agreement committing the churches to information exchange and care for German-speaking congregations in the U.S. and English-speaking congregations in Germany during a Sept. 24 worship service at the Lutheran Center in Chicago.

A cooperative agreement between the ELCA and the Evangelical Church in Germany is signed Sept. 24 in Chicago. Attending the ceremony are: Wolfgang Huber (left), bishop of the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz; Robert Smith, ELCA continental desk director for Europe and the Middle East; ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark. S. Hanson; Michael Trice, ELCA director for ecumenical formation and interreligious relations; and Martin Schindehuette, bishop and head of the EKG Church Office section of Ecumenical Relations and Ministries Abroad.

The agreement—which provides for exchange of clergy, EKD deacons and diaconal ministers, and Christian education teachers—renews a 1991 agreement between the two churches, said ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson.

Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chair of the EKD Council, told the ELCA News Service that the agreement will help the churches work together to prepare for the 500th anniversary in 2017 of the start of the Reformation, when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany (see "It's all about grace").

Later that day, representatives of the ELCA, EKD and Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod discussed concerns related to ministry centers in Wittenberg.