For nearly

half of the second millennium, the Christian church has

been divided. This month, an event that would have been

unthinkable a few decades ago will bring the two sides

closer together, church leaders say. Some have expressed

hope for real unity in the foreseeable future.

On Oct. 31,

leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Lutheran

World Federation (LWF) will assemble in Augsburg, Germany

to sign the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of

Justification," an historic agreement with the Roman

Catholic Church.

The

doctrine of justification says people become "right

with God" because Jesus Christ won their salvation

through his life, death and resurrection. This means

salvation is strictly a gift through faith in Jesus and

not something to be earned.

The Joint

Declaration is "a significant milestone in the

reconciliation of our two church traditions. By

acknowledging that there is agreement on this crucial

article of the Christian faith, our two churches have

bridged a theological divide that has separated us for

nearly 500 years," said Lutheran Bishop H. George

Anderson earlier this year at the national assembly of

the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

"This

agreement will have a positive effect on the mood of

conversations between our two communions. I hope that

this theological breakthrough will lead to other

agreements in the future," Anderson said.

Archbishop

Alexander J. Brunett, Roman Catholic Diocese of Seattle,

called the declaration "a powerful gift from God...,

our common understanding of the grace of Christ as

central in our lives," in an address to the Lutheran

body.

"What

we receive as a gift... also comes to us as a common task

and challenge," said Brunett. "What we

understand anew, we must teach anew and live out together

anew. This is the last stage that opens between us as

Lutherans and Catholics."

Many other

issues remain to be resolved, church leaders said,

including an understanding of the sacraments, the office

of ministry and the authority of the Pope. But Catholics

and Lutherans are saying, "We don't have any

church-dividing difference between us any longer on the

teaching of justification by grace through faith."

In Fayette

County, Holy Trinity Catholic Church and Christ Our

Shepherd Lutheran Church, both of Peachtree City, will

celebrate this event together, according to Lutheran

intern Jennifer Hepler, who is helping pull together the

worship service.

Other

congregations have been invited; everyone is welcome,

Hepler said.

Asked

whether either church changed its position on the

justification by faith, Hepler replied: "No. This

represents that we are coming to a common understanding.

We come from different perspectives, and to get through

the language part to where we truly agreed about what we

were talking about took a good bit of time.

"We've

been talking for the last 20 to 30 years, and are trying

to move to some commonality on faith." Hepler said

that once Vatican II "opened the door for ecumenical

conversations between Protestants and Catholics,"

and the Roman Catholic church recognized Protestant and

Orthodox Christians as ecclesiastical bodies, Lutherans

began to think more ecumenically.

"The

idea of justification was one of the major things that

divided us in the first place," she added.

The worship

service here will be one of many similar observations

nationwide, according to a statement issued by The

Liturgical Conference, an ecumenical association that

works to renew liturgy within the churches. The

Conference encourages "using the Service of the Word

approved for joint Lutheran-Catholic worship or the

prayer offices that are the common inheritance of the

whole Church."

Lutheran

liturgy has remained very similar to the Roman Catholic

mass, which in turn has preserved elements of worship

used in ancient Judaism, Hepler said.

"Our

form of worship dates back to at least the 2nd century

and is based somewhat on the Temple worship of

Jerusalem," Hepler said. "Some would say that

this is part of the catholicity of the Church."

One

definition of the term "catholic" is "of

or pertaining to the ancient undivided Christian

church." Oct. 31 is significant because on that day

in 1517, 482 years ago, Martin Luther introduced his 95

theses, points of contention with the Vatican.

Among other

things, Luther denounced the sale of indulgences, letters

replacing punishment for the sins of the repentant.

Augsburg

was the site, in 1530, of a conference of Luther's

followers which drafted a statement outlining the beliefs

and practices of the churches in Germany. The resulting

Augsburg Confession has served as a founding document of

the Lutheran Church.

The

Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of

128 Lutheran bodies in 70 countries, including the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and represents 58

million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans.