Looking for peace together 

For 40 years, LWF Central America has been working in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. There, common threats to vulnerable populations include limited, fragmented economic growth; forced and voluntary migration; continued violation of basic human rights; militarization and insecurity; and natural disasters. In 2021, LWF Central America supported more than 29,000 people including different projects in response to COVID-19. 

On 24 October 2023, the program will celebrate 40 years of work. On this occasion, the LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt will visit the program. 

Building capacity for faith and rights-based advocacy 

Working with ecumenical partners, the World Council of Churches, Norwegian Church Aid and Finn Church Aid, LWF provides participants with an opportunity to explore effective strategies for faith and rights-based advocacy.  

Taking place in Geneva, this training also offers participants the opportunity for practical engagement with UN mechanisms during the course of the week, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the (Universal Periodic Review (UPR). 

In addition, the diverse backgrounds of participants lay the foundations for effective networking, peer learning and sharing.

Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management 

Organized by the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Council of Churches, the Council for World Mission, the World Methodist Council and the Lutheran World Federation, this training brings together economic actors, church employees, indigenous people and others to learn together about how to advocate for economic justice.  

 The GEM School has the following objectives:

• Identify theological starting points for economic justice (i.e. why and how theology and ethics are deeply related to economic life) 
• Provide a basic understanding of mainstream economic thinking 
• Identify economic models and their consequences in different regional contexts  
• Widen the horizon of economics by introducing ecological, feminist and other pluralistic approaches 
• Develop an interdisciplinary structure for bridging theological and economic thinking and action 
• Lay out the political and strategic implications for churches and their advocacy for an Economy of Life in the context of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace. 

This training focuses on tensions between mediation and conflict prevention on one hand and human rights protection on the other  

The goals of this training, organized in partnership with the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Brot für die Welt, Evangelische Mission Weltweit, Misereor, and the United Evangelical Mission, are: 

• To bring together practitioners, academicians and church actors, to learn about conflict transformation and peace building 
• To expose participants to mechanisms of human rights protection and advocacy available to them 
• To explore the tensions between conflict resolution and human rights protection   
• To share good practices and to explore their adaptability in participants’ diverse contexts 
• To network and support further collaboration for peacebuilding, advocacy and human rights protection

Autumn Study Course at the Institute for Ecumenical Research

This online course will explore major ecumenical developments of the past sixty years, with a focus on relations between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, Mennonites, Orthodox and Pentecostals. 

Participants will be asked to report on relations between the churches in their own countries, discussing challenges and developing tools to promote a rapprochement between churches in the different contexts. 

With a maximum of 20 participants, it will also serve to strengthen ties and promote communion building among LWF member churches. 

Since 1965, the Institute in Strasbourg has been working to provide theological analysis and advice to serve the world’s Lutheran churches as they seek to move forward on the path towards Christian unity. 

Open to all, with endorsement of church leadership.

Engaging faith actors to effectively prevent, mitigate and respond to sexual and gender-based violence

Lutheran World Federation, in collaboration with World Vision (WV) Episcopal Relief and Development, Tearfund, UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, and Vista Hermosa Foundation are convening this half day event which will appreciate promising initiatives and programming that is integrating faith into SGBV prevention/mitigation/response, with some extra attention to those being implemented in emergencies.

The event will engage civil society organizations, multilateral organizations, donors, researchers, and other faith and secular actors to network and collaborate with one another to end SGBV. 

Churches confront sexual and gender-based violence 

Violence against women in all its forms is the most pervasive and detrimental expression of injustice. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) exists in the domestic sphere, the world of work, even in church and religious traditions. The negative impact on individuals, and on the spiritual wholeness of the community, calls for the church to intentionally address these inequalities. 

Shaping the global communion and strengthening the priesthood of all believers 

The seminar will focus on the biblical and Lutheran vision as well as values of church leadership.  The 22 lay leaders from 22 LWF member churches around the world will have an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of being a leader in the Lutheran communion and learn more about LWF’s work. This will be the first post-pandemic in-person gathering in the annual series of trainings hosted by the Communion Office and the LWF Center in Wittenberg.   

Spiritual exchange, sharing joys and challenges, building networks, and learning about being Lutheran in diverse contexts across the global communion are integral parts of the seminar. 

Through its humanitarian and development arm World Service, LWF serves 3.5 million people in need in 28 countries world wide.

The meeting brings together the management teams of the LWF country programs, as well as LWF headquarters in Geneva, to discuss best practices, contextual challenges and other aspects of their joint work for Hope and a Future.

The LWF Council meets once a year and is responsible for LWF business between Assemblies. It consists of: 

• the President 
• the Chairperson of the Finance Committee 
• 48 lay or ordained people, from LWF member churches in seven regions. 

Members of this Council were appointed at the 2017 Twelfth Assembly.