In Germany, Church, day often offer a Chance for a Pause. Until Sunday at the German Protestant Kirchentag in Dortmund on the theme of trust in times of Fear and social division.
A few days before the beginning of the Church tags in Dortmund wrinkles volunteers, thousands of cardboard stool
Ralf Greth is in the final preparations. “We are a small community, but many here have great interest in. And all of them are excited,” he says of the German wave. Greth is a Protestant priest in Dortmund-Syburg. And Dortmund, the city, which is international mainly because of the football club Borussia Dortmund is known, from this Wednesday evening to host the 37. German Protestant Church Day. Greth reported, some from the congregation would offer single accommodations for Church tags, guests, and others involved accommodation as a helper in Collecting, gyms, or schools.
The Motto “What is a trust” imprinted Dortmund until Sunday.
Dortmund and the Ruhr area expect more than 100,000 guests to meet up Sunday-long Christians. Since 1949, every two years, Evangelical Christians come together in the rule. The five-day Meeting, held in odd-numbered years, are far greater than the Catholics days, which are held in even-numbered years. And they are also far more significant. This is also true for the critical point of view on politics and society. So went to the Church conference in Hamburg in 1981, under the slogan “Fear not” in times of the Cold war, the peace movement, the Church days before the year 2000, the Call was strengthened after a debt relief for developing countries.
Fromm. According to. Colorful.
In Church days are always politically and religiously, colorful, and loud and musical. This is also true for the days in Dortmund, Germany. Church days are known for great worship services with Thousands of brass and in the morning “Bible studies” with Celebrities, and the interpretations of a Bible text.
The Motto of the Church of the day in an old brewery building in the heart of Dortmund.
In Dortmund, there is an Ecumenical feast in a former coal mine, or a Disney-worship. Church tags, guests can go on pilgrimage routes, also to the historical Church, the parish priest, Greth, or in a sport hall, ice-skating, and reverent-cheerful singing. But above all, there are hundreds of forums and panel discussions, in which serious topics are discussed.
Climate change and populism
The Meeting in Dortmund is based on the Bible – under the Motto “What is a trust”. Confidence, says pastor Greth, need it in society, in the Church, the family, in the workplace. “Everywhere there is lack of trust in goods is in order and falls, but our living together,” he says. And Church tags President Hans Leyendecker (70), previously a Journalist, says: “There is a lot that acts like an acid that destroys the confidence in the cohesion of society.” The Church wanted to put contrary to the solidarity of the people with each other and internationally.
Pastor Ralf Greth
Pastor Greth hopes on signals from the Church of the day, especially in the areas of climate change and populism. On the issue of climate change, the Evangelical Church was committed a long time ago and try also to environmental protection. Given the heated debate in German society, he set but to strong words against populism and exclusion. “We cannot fail to make it clear that this is a mistake. It trust is needed, we have to live with in Europe and in the World as people together and not separate. And we will not survive, if we are to differentiate ourselves.”
The most important event of the Church Convention on the theme “environment and climate” debate, among other things, the President of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, and the German face of the “Fridays for Future”movement, Luisa Neubauer, with climate experts.
With Merkel, without AfD
Dortmund in the German policy. The Federal President and his still living predecessor, have announced that several Federal Ministers and the Prime Minister. On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed with the previous Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2006-2018), an Economist, on the topic of trust in the context of international politics.
Church Tags President Hans Leyendecker
But on the topic of “politics in Church” is at least debated in the media for months, most about the Non-consideration of AfD politicians. The spokesman of the party see themselves marginalized and to criticize the Evangelical Church. But Church tags President Leyendecker is in the case of this subject, and warns of a possible production of the right-wing populists at the expense of the Church day. “We invite you, as a Church, generally speaking, no representative, nobody from the CDU or the SPD,” he says. “We invite people who have something to say – and Mr Gauland, a woman ryegrass, and the like, have nothing to say to me.” The AfD remains only a Stand in Dortmund’s pedestrian zone – outside of the Church Convention program.