Repentance is God’s gift to the world through Jesus Christ, and it’s a central theme of the ongoing Lutheran Reformation, Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and Lutheran World Federation president, said at a Sept. 20 groundbreaking ceremony for the Luther Garden in Wittenberg, Germany.
So begins a Luther Decade that will end in 2017—the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.
“What launched [Luther] into prominence was that theological witness that he began with the theme of repentance,” Hanson said. “My prayer is that this garden may be a sign of hope ... for the people of the world—that the repentant life in Christ will free us to care for God’s creation, and to work for reconciliation, justice and peace in God’s world.”
© 2013 Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Comments
Douglas
Posted at 10:28 pm (U.S. Eastern) 10/23/2008
Even from a secular viewpoint, few other events have caused so great a change of the course of human history as did Luther's proposals. It's particularly fitting that we should have a decade-long leadup to the quincentennial and that Lutherans should take the lead in the commemoration.
Doug Bell
Holy Trinity
Berlin, Pennsylvania
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