Title: Lutheran, Catholic Church Leaders Meet ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEFS February 11, 1997 LUTHERAN, CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADERS MEET The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb will participate in a historic forum Feb. 20 to speak on "The Common Statement on Justification by Faith" as proposed by the Roman Catholic Church and the churches of the Lutheran World Federation. Anderson, long-time leader in Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, and Lipscomb, recent chair of the U.S. Bishops'Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, will discuss the development, recent amendments, and significance of the common statement. Dialogue between the church bodies on the justification issue has been ongoing, and Catholic and Lutheran scholars in the United States broke new ground in 1983 with their joint statement, "Justification by Faith." In this paper both churches were able to say "Our entire hope of justification and salvation rests on Christ Jesus and on the Gospel whereby the good news of God's merciful action in Christ is made known; we do not place our ultimate trust in anything other than God's promise and saving work in Christ." A draft statement was circulated in 1995 to member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 122 member churches including the ELCA, and the bishops' conferences of the Catholic Church with a request for responses. The draft statement, which may be on the agenda for the 1997 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Philadelphia, proposes to express a common statement of faith that both sides would find to be an adequate expression of the essentials of Christian belief on justification. The forum will be hosted by Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, one of 28 colleges and universities associated with the ELCA. Anderson was president of Luther College from 1982-1995 before his election as the second presiding bishop of the ELCA. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html