Pan African Anglican-Lutheran Commission Planned
Episcopal News Service. February 6, 1998 [98-2086N]
(ACNS) The establishment of a Pan African Anglican-Lutheran commission to work toward a relationship of full communion as a stage along the way to full visible unity recently was discussed in a consultation held in Johannesburg, South Africa. "Specific to the Anglican-Lutheran dialogue in Africa is its emphasis on the pastoral and diaconal dimensions to the church's life, which participants affirmed as being central to the life of a visibly united church in the African context," according to Canon David Hamid of the Anglican Consultative Council, co-secretary of the interim commission established to set up the actual commission. Regarding issues related to the understanding of the church, sacraments and ministry, Hamid said that the Pan African dialogue will benefit from the international Anglican-Lutheran dialogue as well as the considerable progress made in Anglican-Lutheran relations in other regions of the world, such as Europe, the United States, and Canada.