Bringing hope to a world full of pain and injustice is the call Bishop Mark S. Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), put on delegates gathered in Stuttgart, Germany for the group's Eleventh Assembly.

"As with previous LWF assemblies, we gather in Stuttgart when the world is in pain. Billions live in poverty in a world of great affluence and abundance," said Hanson, who is also the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

"Yet we gather for this assembly in confident hope, for God has neither abandoned God's people nor forsaken God's creation," he added.

Hanson's speech was delivered on Tuesday to over 1,000 attendees, including 418 official delegates, who will be participating in the LWF's highest decision-making body.

Gathered under the theme "Give Us Today Our Daily Bread," the group will be meeting until July 27 to discuss the direction of the LWF's 70 million congregants for the next six years.

"When Martin Luther spoke of 'daily bread' he referred not only to physical and spiritual sustenance, but to all that is necessary for a human life in dignity-including good government," outgoing LWF General Secretary the Rev. Ishmael Noko wrote in his report to the Assembly.

"The 'us' and the 'our' in the prayer includes the needs of our fellow human beings, as well as those of the rest of creation including the buffalo, the elephant, the birds and the fish, and the wellness of the environment," Noko added. "What we receive from God is only edible, digestible, enjoyable and spiritually nutritious when we are conscious of the needs of others."

The LWF leaders also made note of the relevance of the Assembly's theme to recent major crises including the global economic meltdown and the BP oil spill.

"In the current context of global economic and environmental crisis, provoked in part by greed and a lack of mutual accountability, the theme of this Assembly is especially poignant," Noko said. "How can and how should we live together in this global village? How can and how should we recognize and reflect the interconnectedness of the whole human family?"

In speaking about the oil spill, Hanson declared the LWF's witness to be that "God remains faithful in restoring the creation and human community. God has not abandoned the creation."

"In this reconciled life with God, we have the freedom to move beyond hostility and condemnation to give the powerful witness of a reconciled community that lives in service of the creation and our neighbor," he said. "This is a moment when the human community needs to hear not only our words of judgment, but also a word of true hope, for we have one to speak.

Other global issues that will be explored at the Assembly include climate change and food security, HIV/AIDS, and illegitimate debt incurred by developing nations.

Along with Hanson and Noko, other prominent leaders from the Christian community participating in the Assembly include Anglican Communion leader the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit.

Greeting the Assembly on Tuesday, Tveit praised the LWF for their contribution to the WCC, calling them a group committed to "peace with justice, to mission, diakonia and to ecumenical dialogue and inter-religious cooperation."

Tveit also noted that the gathering's theme "touches the heart of the gospel and therefore also the heart of our being one in Christ."

"When we pray for daily bread, we acknowledge the body of Christ, the bread of life, given for our salvation, and we experience the hunger of justice that calls us into communion for actions of sharing," he said.