“My family is all over the world. No matter where I go, they are always already there.“ Petra Schulze is excited by this thought. Her family are Christians all over the world.
“Family of Christ” around the globe
“If you don’t have any problems – for your travels, for example, if you know where you can go, then go to the train station mission. The help you as more and more.“ These are the words of my grandmother, I have still in the ear. If you don’t know where you can go… Then a Church or a parsonage on search or go to the railway mission. That’s how I learned as a child and young people. The people of the Church are for everyone. Regardless of where you come from. In the municipality you will be always helped. And just as in a Church facility such as the railway mission.
That Christians at any time of day or night and totally unbureaucratic everyone and help anyone who needs help, this is still my absolute favourite thought about Christianity. And that is my strongest Motivation to be a Christian. As Jesus said: “Whoever does the will of my father who is in the heavens, the same is my brother, and my sister and my mother.” (King James Translation, Matthew 12,49)
A bond of trust
To me, everything has become once again aware, as I was now at the end of June at the German Protestant Kirchentag in Dortmund.
The Kirchentag. For me, a special opportunity to experience the worldwide communion. The “family man,” as Herbert Grönemeyer sang. A strong sign, for me, again and again, as we give each other space – for example, in the case of the quarters, search for Church tags guests. We open our houses or apartments. To press the custom key into the hands of Strangers – which requires advance payment of a high level of trust. I remember how we had opened in their studies over the Christmas and new year’s eve, our residential community for students from Bossey – Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland. They come from Cuba and Tonga. And teach us a lot. Salsa dancing, for example. What a night for a raucous new year’s eve! And we also have to convey what is: women are equal to men. The need to learn the Cuban theologian who bossed around his wife – also a theologian – like a Pasha. This is not well for us… pimps have used in our rent out.
And then Kirchentag in Dortmund. My Home Town. I was born and grew up. And now I come again after a long absence here. Childhood memories flow. My eyes can’t see enough: rose garden in Westphalia Park, a black-and-yellow Borussia Dortmund, the Stadion Signal Iduna Park, formerly Westfalenstadion. Not far from the Gymnasium, where I went to school I went. The Westfalenhallen, the stadium Red earth and the ice stadium. I see myself as a student sitting in the St. reinoldi Church and pray: “Should I study theology, or is it something else? There are so many opportunities open to me. Where, God, am I useful to You? What is the most of my talents? And where I’m going to have a future career?“ Then, fears for the future: We are so many. The baby boomers of the 60s. Unemployment threatens. What is trust?
“Family man” – for a good life in the house of the earth
The reactor disaster of Chernobyl contaminated our crops in the garden. The whole Digging, Seeding, Fertilizing, and Weeding, the worm scans, and casting, all in vain. The far-sighted Protestant theologian and “word for Sunday”spokesman Jörg Zink has published a booklet, in which he describes the downfall of the earth: wars, exploitation of natural resources, water shortage, air and sea pollution and and and. Everything is already known back then and aware of them. And since then, Evangelical Christians are, for me, the climate catastrophe Warner, the Environmentalists, peace activists around the globe… We urge and act, in the trust that the world is saved. That God has set up for us wonderful. And that we must all work together to protect people of all religions and Nations – the house of the earth and keep it.
The house of the earth. To be In home all over the world – as a Christian. With sisters and brothers in all countries of the earth. A great treasure. A Basis for life. A Task. A Pleasure.
About The Author
Country pastor, Petra Schulze, Born in 1965, studied Protestant theology, journalism, and social psychology in Bochum. It is for the WDR and other radio stations as a freelance journalist, and worked for the weekly newspaper “Our Church”. Since November 2011, she is the Evangelische rundfunkbeauftragte beim WDR and Director of the Protestant radio unit NRW in Düsseldorf.