After more than two years of intensive preparation and globe-spanning work, Luther Seminary Professor Dirk Lange is eagerly—and perhaps a bit anxiously—anticipating Oct. 31.
That’s when Lange will see the culmination of the work he’s done helping coordinate the historic joint ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church in Lund and Malmö, Sweden.
The event, which will be live streamed via the Internet beginning at 8:30 a.m. CDT, can be viewed here: https://www.lutheranworld.org/lund2016/livestream.
Lange, associate dean of Graduate Theological Education, Fredrik A. Schiotz Chair of Missions and Professor of Worship at Luther Seminary, has played a key role in this important event, including serving as the principal author of the liturgy that will take place in Lund Cathedral. Pope Francis, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) President Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan and LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr. Martin Junge will lead the common prayer service before a host of invited guests and religious leaders from around the world.
“This will be a day when we will commemorate not only the 500 years of the Reformation, but what’s extraordinary is that we will be doing it right along with the Roman Catholic Church,” says Lange.
Lange has spent roughly 40 percent of his time over the past two years helping coordinate both this event and a second one planned for the 500th Reformation anniversary in May 2017, to be held in Windhoek, Namibia, at the 12th LWF General Assembly (a gathering of Lutheran churches from around the world).
For the initial Oct. 31 celebration, Lange served as project officer for event coordination along with two other consultants, working to organize efforts between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome, the LWF in Geneva and the event’s local hosts, the Church of Sweden and the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm.
The celebration, which is expected to draw more than 10,000 visitors, will happen in two parts: First is the service to be held for about 500 guests in Lund Cathedral. The service will be simultaneously live streamed to an arena in Malmö, a city about 15 minutes from Lund, where the majority of visitors will gather. After the service, the invited guests and speakers will travel to Malmö for a program led jointly by Pope Francis and members of the Lutheran leadership. All events will be both live streamed and broadcast internationally.
“This joint commemoration has been the result of a long process of dialogue that’s been going on for 50 years between Lutherans and Roman Catholics,” Lange says. “A highlight of that dialogue was in 1999 when the ‘Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification’ was signed by the LWF and by the Vatican. After that event came a ground-breaking publication called ‘From Conflict to Communion,’ where the dialogue commission re-examined the roots of the Reformation from both Lutheran and Catholic sides. They came to a joint agreement on its value so both Lutherans and Roman Catholics can express deep joy about the gifts that came to the church through Luther’s Reformation, as well as repentance, in that we both mutually ask forgiveness for the division and for the violence that we’ve done to each other over the centuries. The Common Prayer expresses both the joy and the confession and turns us towards common witness and service. We’re doing the day together in Lund.”
As the principal author of the day’s liturgical service, Lange admits to a few small butterflies as the event draws closer.
“We’ve been working with the people in Lund, getting musicians, getting choirs prepped and thinking through the whole logistics of the liturgy,” Lange says. “And of course we’ve also been working with Rome the whole time for all of this. It doesn’t matter if I’m at a liturgy at a parish church or this event, there’s always a little worry that somebody will forget something, or that you as the liturgist will have forgotten something! You always want it to go well.”
Lange says this joint commemoration is deeply significant for a number of reasons, especially given the backdrop of strife that marks much of the world today.
“This truly demonstrates the importance of dialogue,” Lange says. “This is the fruit of listening to one another and of recognizing our differences but not letting them divide us. It really speaks to the impact of careful dialogue and how important it is today in a world that is so wounded by extreme positions, where people entrench themselves and set themselves up against others. Here is a beautiful witness of how we can move beyond divisions, not by denying that there is difference, but saying that is not what defines us. And of course that’s embodied especially in the fact that Pope Francis is joining us. In most peoples’ minds, the Reformation divided the church, but … today we can say we’ve moved beyond that, we’re moving from conflict to communion.”
Lange thinks this event will also serve to jumpstart additional conversations between Lutherans and Catholics, and spread throughout the churches down to the local level. His also hopes this spirit of reconciliation spurs Lutherans and Catholics to find more new ways in which they can work together to further God’s work in the world.