The LCANZ bishops have called on the people of the church to set aside Sunday 8 October for a churchwide day of prayer focusing on the unity of the church. This is a significant day as it is just a year from the 2024 Convention of General Synod.
At the in-person sessions of the 2021–23 Convention of General Synod, the General Church Board and College of Bishops were asked to consider possible ways forward in the decades-long ordination debate. The Way Forward project is working to develop a framework whereby the LCANZ could function as one church with two different practices of ordination. It is intended that this proposal will be brought to the 2024 Convention of General Synod, 4–7 October 2024.
‘Across the church’, said LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith, ‘there are sisters and brothers in Christ of our Lutheran communities who are working together in the Way Forward project to guide our church to consider what is required for us to properly address what has been asked for by the resolution of General Synod.
‘We are asking the entire church to pray for these sisters and brothers, our leaders, and everyone who is affected by these conversations. We are calling for focused churchwide prayer on Sunday 8 October, and for ongoing prayer in the congregations and households of the church.
‘The prophet Zechariah declares a promise of our gracious God, “They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God’.”’ (Zechariah 13).
Congregations have been asked to mark 8 October on their calendars for the churchwide Call to Prayer, while ongoing prayer on this matter throughout October and beyond is also encouraged. Worship orders, including the Call to Prayer elements, are available on the Worship Planning Page at www.lca.org.au/wpp
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