A high-level delegation led by Rev Mark S. Hanson, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) president and presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and LWF general secretary Rev Ishmael Noko has just closed its 8-day tour to West Africa yesterday. Throughout the trip, the delegation highlighted the need to help the poorer countries in social and religious aspects.

Rev Hanson spoke with the theme "Growing Together, Growing Apart" at Lutheran Communion in Western Africa (LUCWA), explaining how religious and socioeconomic factors which cause Christians and the world to grow either together or apart.

When Christians see each other as companions, working for the sake of the gospel, this is when the world grows together. The advancement of technology enables easier global communication, which also contributes in uniting the world. However, Rev Hanson sees economic globalisation as one example of growing apart.

By looking within the LWF - relationships between the church catholic, interfaith and interreligious relationships, and global relationships - it is possible to see whether Christians are growing together or apart, Rev Hanson said.

Rev Hanson suggested that imbalances continue to exist between the rich and poor, the weak and strong of the world. The church, he stressed, should give "prophetic judgment" in face of injustice.

The Church should be a good example to the world by sharing resources globally in the LWF worldwide. He complimented churches in the Southern Hemisphere, "The maturing of the Lutheran World Federation and its true nature as a communion in which member churches share their gifts with one another, as reflected in the rapidly growing Lutheran churches in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, are becoming teachers for the Northern Hemisphere churches."

Rev. Ishmael Noko, LWF general secretary, recalled the 1955 All Africa Lutheran Consultation (AALC) in Marangu, Tanzania, when Lutheran churches in Africa held their first joint conference. He celebrated that many problems have been overcome in these 50 years, including colonialism, poor communication, geographical boundaries, underdevelopment and lack of human resources in the churches.

However, on Christian-Muslim and Christian-Jewish relationships, Noko explained that a lot still needed to be done toward improvement in Africa. He hoped the new frontiers in missionary work would discover ways to enhance understanding among people of different faiths.

The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN) Archbishop Nemuel A. Babba; Lutheran Church of Nigeria (LCN) Bishop Effiong E. Ekanem; LUCWA President Robert Goyek Daga, also head of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren of Cameroon; and several other clergy from Nigeria and within the LUCWA sub-region also attended the meeting.