The Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) is meeting in Ulm for its annual Synod and I wish I could be there. My diary prohibited it, so the Meissen Commission/Church of England is being represented by one of my colleagues. The exciting thing about this year’s Synod is the election of the EKD’s new governing Council (Rat der EKD) for the next six years. The election of the Rat is followed immediately by the election from its numbers of the President/Chair (Ratsvorsitzender).
OK, that doesn’t sound exciting, does it? But it was always going to be a hard job to succeed the retiring Ratsvorsitzender, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, who, as well as leading the Church, has also driven the Reformprozess and is a superb communicator and representative of the Church in the public sphere.
The election this afternoon has seen the Hannoversche Landesbischöfin Margot Käßmann resoundingly elected- the first time a woman will have led the German Protestant Church.
I am biased. Margot Käßmann kindly wrote the foreword to the German-language version of my last book, Finding Faith (In höchsten Tönen, LVH 2009). She is a very popular church leader and bishop of the largest Landeskirche in Germany. She is a superb speaker, preacher, media operator and communicator both in and outside the church. She will bring a renewed and powerful dynamic to the Christian message in Germany and beyond.
It also makes the relations between the EKD and the Church of England interesting as we contemplate the consecration of women as bishops. It will make relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the EKD in Germany even more interesting to follow – with a German Pope and a female Ratsvorsitzenderin of the largest Protestant Church in Europe.
October 28, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Totally off topic, so forgive this silly question.
How long did the Christian message in Germany take to resurrect it self after WW2 ? I just wonder whether the Germans lost all contact with the almighty altogether?
How did they reconcile themselves to their collective Godlessness during times like that?
October 29, 2009 at 8:16 am
The Germans never lost their grasp on Christian faith and responsibility. The so-called Confessing Church saw some very significant Christians lead a church in opposition to the Nazis and it was Christians who led the ‘confession’ of German guilt after the war. yes, the German churches were heavily compromised during the 1930s and ’40s, but there were large numbers of Christians who put their prophetic faith ahead of their personal safety and paid a very heavy price: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoeller are two of the most famous and I have blogged on both of them in the past!
October 29, 2009 at 10:21 am
It is always good news to hear about women elected to church leadership, Nick. I really enjoy your blogs on the German church. My limited experience of working with Germans is that actually they are MORE connected to their Christian roots than we are, and find the notion of faith much more culturally at home than we Brits sometimes are. They celebrate better and have a deeper understanding of the cycle of the year. I attended an Erntedankfest at a church in Bad Oeynhausen at the beginning of this month, and although it incorporated the annual thanksgiving from a local kindergarten, the place was so full they ran out of hymnbooks, probably 350 people there – so they got me belting out “Wir pflugen und wir streuen” in hearty English…
Lovely – full fellowship, warmth of heart and welcome, and I don’t even speak the language. Keep telling us more!
October 30, 2009 at 6:53 am
Hi Nick,
I live in Germany and have a good friend who is ordained in the EKD, so I know a bit about the situation. I can’t really confirm your picture of it, I’m afraid. Outside some pockets in the south, they seem to have completely lost their faith…Sermons, for example, are simply treatises in academic liberal theology.
This is encouraged by the hierarchy, who are terrified of non-liberals. This is why they insist candidates for ordination first get a degree from a secular university (and if you know about German academic theology, you will know the consequences of this). Their “discernment” process for theology students who want to be ordained is also a joke. Most of the ones I’ve spoken to have confirmed this.
The church is bleeding members, and the average pew sitter who tends to be rather conservative are appalled by some of their antics. (Which is why many of them are heading off to free churches) A case in point, unfortunately is Margot Käsemann, who quite recently (1 or 2 years ago) got divorced. I’m certainly not saying she should be thrown on the scrap heap, but what kind of message does that send out, when not only do you fail to acknowledge that it is even an issue, but you almost immediately give her a promotion?
Not only are they losing members, but they aren’t finding any new ones. Mission for them is social work. My friend says the hierarchy has now recognised the need for a spiritual dimension in mission but think they can fill something like the willow-creek method (which his local bishop sees as cutting edge) with liberal content- pretty impossible given the amount of effort and motivation that a congregation need to make that work.
These are my impressions of the situation, based on my own experience and friends who are members of the EKD. I hope and pray there is another side which I’m not aware of, though. Actually, one encouraging thing might be something forced upon them from outside- the introduction of the bachelor/master system in Germany might mean they are forced to accept ordination candidates in future with a BA from conservative bible colleges- that would shake things up a bit!
October 30, 2009 at 11:24 pm
MattS, I’ll do a fuller post in response to your comments. Many thanks for writing.
November 2, 2009 at 6:36 pm
[...] also remember the ninth Commandment. (Look it up.) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)And over in Germany…Roman candlesMore Roman candlesMission: Impossible [...]
January 18, 2010 at 6:01 pm
The election this afternoon has seen the Hannoversche Landesbischöfin Margot Käßmann resoundingly elected- the first time a woman will have led the German Protestant Church.
“I am biased. Margot Käßmann kindly wrote the foreword to the German-language version of my last book, Finding Faith (In höchsten Tönen, LVH 2009). She is a very popular church leader and bishop of the largest Landeskirche in Germany. She is a superb speaker, preacher, media operator and communicator both in and outside the church. She will bring a renewed and powerful dynamic to the Christian message in Germany and beyond.”
“She is a very popular church leader and bishop of the largest Landeskirche in Germany.”
Margot Kässmann: „Viele Christinnen und Christen sind irritiert, dass die biblische Texte vom gewalttätigen Handeln Jahves sprechen oder an dieses appellieren. Der gewalttätige Jahve und die Gewalt des Jahves Volkes sind im hebräi- schen Teil der Bibel kein vereinzeltes Thema. Ein Wissenschaftler hat im Alten Testament 600 Textstellen mit explizi- ter Gewalt gezählt und 1000 Verse, in denen gewaltsames Handeln auf Jahve zurückgeführt wird – Geschichten, in denen Jahve das Töten befiehlt sowie solche, in denen Jahve selbst andere tötet. Jahve wird als Krieger beschrieben, er benutzt Waffen, Jahve kämpft.“
January 18, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Max, your point is what exactly? Or do you still hold onto a prejudiced and trite understanding of how to read texts?
January 18, 2010 at 7:36 pm
The New Evangelicals
This election, a growing movement presents a challenge to the religious right.
by Frances FitzGerald June 30, 2008
Text Size:
Evangelical leaders have been most divided over global warming.
Just four years ago, during the last Presidential election, leaders on the religious right were the only white evangelicals whose voices were heard in the public arena. In their own gatherings, they proposed such things as the abolition of the capital-gains tax, a war on radical Islam, and an end to the “myth of separation” between church and state, but they concentrated their public campaigns on gay rights and abortion, the two issues that have resonated most strongly with evangelicals and helped to bring them into the Republican Party. Under the leadership of James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, and others, including Richard Land, the official in charge of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention, activists organized “values voters” with the help of ballot initiatives in eleven states for constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage. In November, all the initiatives passed, and George W. Bush took seventy-eight per cent of the white evangelical vote—a record for a Presidential candidate. Because evangelicals make up a quarter of the population, the religious right claimed credit for giving President Bush his margin of victory.
This year, however, is very different. During the primary season, religious-right leaders could not unite around a candidate. On Super Tuesday, thirty per cent of evangelical Republicans voted for John McCain, the favorite of moderates and independents. Even more surprising, a third of evangelicals in Missouri and Tennessee chose to vote Democratic, as did, a month later, forty-three per cent in Ohio. Meanwhile, Barack Obama—unlike John Kerry, in 2004—has been trying to win over white evangelicals. In televised discussions sponsored by religious organizations, he has spoken of his faith, and framed issues such as health care and the war in Iraq in moral terms. In recent weeks, he has met privately with evangelical leaders and started to reach out to values voters. These efforts suggest that he is hoping to do as well as, if not better than, Bill Clinton, who won a third of the white evangelical vote in both 1992 and 1996. Mark DeMoss, a public-relations expert whose firm has worked for Focus on the Family and for Franklin Graham, is among those who think he can.
This view is based in large part on the fact that religious-right activists are no longer the only evangelical leaders speaking out. Since 2004, influential pastors and the heads of many large faith organizations have set a new national-policy agenda, one founded on their understanding of the life of Jesus and his ministry to the poor, the outcast, and the peacemakers. The movement has no single charismatic leader, no institutional center, and no specific goals. It doesn’t even have a name. But it is nonetheless posing the first major challenge to the religious right in a quarter of a century.
January 18, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Neoconservatives and the Hebrew Bible
The Neocons Are Biblically Grounded
by Robert L. Johnson
The new conservatives, or neocons, are a powerful group in Washington, DC. They are credited in Time [1] as being the driving force, through neocon and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, to suggest to George W. Bush that the US needed to start a war in Iraq. After tens of thousands of dead and horribly wounded Iraqis, over 1,200 dead and many thousands more terribly wounded and mutilated Americans, the American people are still faithfully marching down the road the neocons put them on.
Where did the neocons’ ideas originate? What is their driving and sustaining force?
January 18, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Max, grow up! Am I to relate every atheist to Stalin and Mao? Just a quick hint: correlations don’t make explanations.
January 18, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Max, do you believe everything you read without engaging any critical faculties – so long as what you read reinforces your prejudices and doesn’t challenge your assumptions?