In a pastoral letter addressed to the heads of churches in Zimbabwe, the President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop Mark S Hanson, has expressed the Lutheran communion's solidarity and support toward Zimbabweans in
in the midst of the ongoing political and economic crisis.
"Through the participation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Zimbabwe (ELCZ), the entire worldwide Lutheran communion is
standing and working together with you in this struggle," wrote
Hanson in the mid-July letter to all heads of churches in the
country.
At its recent meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, the LWF Council
requested the president's pastoral letter to the churches as an
expression of the "LWF's hope and trust that God cares for and
would save the suffering people of Zimbabwe."
Hanson is presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America.
His pastoral letter affirms the churches' efforts in helping
people whose livelihoods had been undermined by the economic
crisis, and who have faced violence and intimidation. "I applaud
your initiatives to promote peace and to advocate for justice,
especially where such initiatives have been taken ecumenically,
as the common position of the churches in Zimbabwe."
The LWF president cited the Council's public statement on
Zimbabwe, and final resolutions, through which it called “for
an immediate end to political violence and repression” and the
restoration of democracy.
The LWF governing body also condemned "the attacks on Zimbabweans for exercising their right of democratic choice" as contrary to the purpose of the nation's
struggle for liberation from colonial rule. It urged the establishment of a peace building process involving all actors at
national, regional and international level.
