Nearly 500 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church door, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States has approved a declaration recognizing "there are no longer church-dividing issues" on many points with the Roman Catholic Church, the Christian Century website reports today (August 18, 2016).
The "Declaration on the Way" was approved 931-9 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly held last week at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the 3.7-million-member ELCA, called the declaration "historic" in a statement released by the denomination following the August 10 vote. "Though we have not yet arrived, we have claimed that we are, in fact, on the way to unity," Eaton said.
Luther -- a Catholic priest who strongly opposed some Catholic doctrine -- began the Protestant Reformation on October 31, 1517, when he nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The document included 95 statements regarding Catholicism he wanted to debate with the Catholic Church. One practice of the Catholic Church that Luther especially opposed was the sale of indulgences by the Church to family members of deceased individuals, in order to lessen the time these individuals would spend in purgatory before going to heaven.
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