A Chilean theologian has been installed as the Lutheran World Federation’s new general secretary. The Rev Martin Junge is the first Latin American to serve in the position.
He will help lead the global church body that represents over 70 million Christians in 79 countries. Addressing Lutheran and ecumenical leaders, Junge encouraged conversations, inclusive communities and bridge building.
“Throughout LWF’s journey over the years, it has seen as its mission to build and continue building bridges in a world ravaged by conflicts, iron curtains, glass ceilings, and all the visible and invisible walls that separate, exclude, confine and curtail the human race called to be one,” he said, according to LWF.
Highlighting the communion table, he stressed that the gathering of different people around the table is “very much in line with the fundamental Lutheran theological understanding of justification by grace”.
Junge is the former president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile. He was elected to a seven-year term as LWF’s eighth general secretary last October. He succeeds the Rev Dr Ishmael Noko, who announced in June 2008 his intention to conclude his service at the end of last month. Noko was the first African to hold the position of general secretary in the LWF.