Reasoning Together: Interreligious Commitment and the Lutheran Church

We live in a world of rich diversity with friends and neighbors of many different faiths and traditions. In 1991, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the church with which Cal Lutheran is affiliated, adopted a “Declaration of Ecumenical Commitment: A Policy Statement of the ELCA” to express how it would strive toward unity among Christian churches for the blessing of humankind.

Over the years, the ELCA has engaged in broader interfaith work and deeply in Lutheran-Jewish and Lutheran-Muslim relations, a continuation of the work of the Reformation with its challenge to the church to grow in faithfulness. A proposed statement titled “A Declaration of Our Inter-Religious Commitment: A Policy Statement of the ELCA” has been drafted to guide and direct the ELCA as well as Lutheran congregations and agencies in interreligious work. The proposed statement is available for review and deliberation; a final document is set to be adopted by the ELCA in 2019.

Join with Rahuldeep Gill of Cal Lutheran’s Department of Religion, the Rev. Kirsi Stjerna of the university’s Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, the Rev. Peg Schultz-Akerson of Lutheran Church of the Master and Brooks Schramm of United Lutheran Seminary as they explore this statement. Participants will learn about what is at stake for the ELCA in adopting it, provide feedback and consider how to be good neighbors and friends.

Admission is free. Copies of the proposed draft are available Jan. 20 by contacting revmmmd@CalLutheran.edu.