Common Word: preparing for the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession

19 SEP 2023

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt and the Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU) Cardinal Kurt Koch presented the Common Word to the Thirteenth LWF Assembly which concludes in Kraków, Poland, on 19 September.

Participants at the highest decision-making body of the LWF included member church delegates and many ecumenical guests who gathered under the theme, “One Body, One Spirit, One Hope.”

This shared reflection between Catholics and Lutherans, preparing for the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 2030, “could lead to another ‘milestone’ on the way from conflict to communion, comparable to the landmark Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.”

The Common Word was read as part of an ecumenical prayer service commemorating baptism.

“Today, differentiating consensus allows Lutherans and Catholics to discern areas of consensus where our predecessors only saw insurmountable oppositions,” states the Common Word by the LWF and the DPCU.