Editorial.(The Lutheran World Communion at Winnipeg, Canada)(Editorial)

Dear Friends,

God's Grace and Peace be with you all! The Lutheran World Communion goes to Winnipeg, Canada to meet as an Assembly on the theme "For the Healing of the World"

Why did we choose this theme?

"For the Healing of the World" is the most appropriate theme when the world is reeling under the devastation of war and conflicts, disasters and famine, HIV/AIDS and rampant poverty, religious extremism, fragmentation, erosion of life sustaining cultures, ecological devastation and lots of insecurities. Together with us the whole world is groaning in pain. We long to feel the healing touch of God, to be enveloped in the warmth of God's Presence, be guided by the caring hand through the warren of options available to some of us or to rise up from ashes of despair and devastation some of us experience or see around us.

It is easy to say we need to sustain our hope but harder to find it amidst our difficulties and struggles, despair and frustrations and amidst people made in the image of God but who are distorted by their ambitions, politicking, selfishness and rank greed for power, money and possessions that we can lose in a trice in today's uncertain world. We have had a war against the will of the majority proving yet again the might of the powerful who can claim and even make the war sound legitimate. We have been disheartened by the action of some of the 'wannabe rich' countries supporting and abetting war just so they gain monetary benefits or naively letting themselves be bulldozed by the mighty. We learn yet again that "desire for money is the root of all evil." We are disheartened, yet we can learn a valuable lesson from this war. That the minority can win if they are powerful enough, strategize well and be bold to run rough shod over the cautions of others. Let us then apply this principle to build our hope that even if we are but a band of minorities struggling to live justly, we can make a difference and reshape history. William Sloane Coffin Jr. says:

The Lutheran World Federation has identified 10 sub themes or 'village groups' as they are more popularly known, to see how much and how far we can go to reclaim the lost image of God in us and to reaffirm our responsibility to be stewards of all of God's creation. Thinking on these subthemes and ...