LCSA greetings at the FELSiSA convention at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Durban/Westville, May 2010.
Dear friends in Christ and fellow Lutherans in the FELSiSA! I greet you with an excerpt from Sunday’s epistle: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.” (Col 3:15a ESV)
Thank you for inviting me to this convention! It is my privilege to bring blessings to you from your brothers and sisters in the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa – your siblings in the Lutheran faith, with whom you have been in altar and pulpit fellowship for decades and with whom you are united as members of the one body of Christ by the grace of God. We in the LCSA are grateful to the Lord of the Church, that he has linked us to such faithful brothers and sisters across the colour- and racial line and that by his mercy we together with you are not just a Zulu- or Tswana or Bantu Church, but rather – in confessional church fellowship with you – a reflection of our Lord’s vision for his most beloved bride: the Church everlasting. Even if our respective Churches remain but a humble reflection of this, yet by God’s grace they are a shadow of what is to come: … this great multitude no one can number, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb! [Rev. 7,9ff] It is what St. Paul describes in the words preceding Cantates epistle lesson: Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Col 3:11 ESV) The one holy Christian Church is what our Lord’s prayed for: "…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Joh 17:20f ESV) Thank God by his grace we are members of this most highly venerated body of Christ.
This one holy Christian church moving across boundaries to all nations, across continents to the ends of the world is “der Lieblingsgedanke aller Heiligen” [Wilhelm Löhe]. This church moving forward renews our confidence, joy, hope and love for all. We trust that he who started this good work will complete it in glory. His vision unites us and spells out the mission into which we have been called to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them everything the Lord taught us [Mt.28,18ff].
Sunday’s epistle guides our confessional partnership in Lutheran missions with remarkable benchmarks: Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:12-17 ESV)
God willing we are moving forward towards the 500th birthday of the Lutheran Church 2017. That is also the 50th birthday of the LCSA, constituted in 1967. We in the LCSA pray that you from FELSiSA will strive, plan and work together with us as we strategize how best and most faithfully to go about celebrating this historic occasion, but also how best and most faithfully we as God’s chosen people can fulfill our joint calling in loving obedience to his mandate on this beloved continent. In the name of the LCSA Church Council I invite you to delegate suitable men to deliberate with us on the way forward. Hopefully this will further strengthen the ties between us.
Dear friends, we in the LCSA are thankful for your ongoing support at congregational, diocesan and church levels with prayers, fellowship, sympathy and support. The following projects involve Lutherans from both our confessional churches benefitting people in need inside and outside our congregations:
v Shelly Beach and Ohlangeni [Crèche in Mafu]
v Durban/Westville & Ntshongweni [Community centre & housing project]
v Kirchdorf & Pella [Rev. C. Tiedemann serving both English and Zulu congregations]
v Greytown St. Peters and Krankskop
v ALPIC: Lüneburg, Kirchdorf, Greytown, Uelzen, Shelly Beach, Vryheid support LCSA pastors financially
v Lüneburg grants vehicle repairs for LCSA pastors and cooperate with Emphileni
v St. Pauls [Arcadia] plays a leading role in ALM [Arcadia Lutheran ministry]
v Panbult, Lüneburg, Kirchdorf, Greytown, Shelly Beach, Wittenberg, Fairlands and St. Pauls [Arcadia] supporting the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane [LTS] as a joint venture of the three shareholders LCSA, FELSiSA and MLC not only financially, but also with good advice, all sorts of donations, hard labour and professional input.
Thank you very much for your significant and ongoing support in the “relief of the saints” [2.Cor.8,4]. Your generosity is “not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God” [2.Cor.9,12]. Thank you very much for being our brothers and sisters in Christ’s Church and in the Lutheran faith sustainably joined together by our Lord’s most gracious institution of holy Baptism, his real presence in Holy Communion and his most holy word in law and gospel creating in us faithful obedience, trust, love and hope! May God continue to bless us in the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa as we go forward together towards his goal lying ahead obedient to his command to hallow his name, faithfully trusting his kingdom to come to us also and his good will to be done by us too as in all the heavens and throughout the earth: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body + (Col 3:15a ESV)
Dr. Wilhelm Weber +
Bishop of the LCSA
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