1 July 2005

Dear Friends,

Today I would like to tell you about two important gatherings of Christians in Central Europe that I was able to attend: the German Protestant “Kirchentag” (Church Convention) in Hannover, Germany from May 25 to 29 and the Christian Encounter Days in Prague, Czech Republic, from June 17 to 19.

The assemblies were very different in size: In Hannover there were 100,000 officially registered participants, and about 300,000 visitors attended as well. In Prague there were between 2,000 and 4,000 participants. Both meetings asked questions about the role of Christians and churches in a uniting Europe and the role of European Christians towards other parts of the world in times of globalization.

The “Kirchentag” in Germany meets every other year. Like other assemblies, this was a large marketplace of different themes and opinions. The theme was from Deuteronomy 6: 20 “And when your child asks you in time to come…” The sub themes were three questions: How can we believe? How do we want to live? How shall we act?

As far as such big events can be, this “Kirchentag” was an environmentally friendly meeting: Public transportation was free, and bicycles were provided. Chairs were recyclable folded paperboard boxes. The biggest of the coffee shops and catering services was selling fair trade products. A lunch was provided from regional agricultural products.

In many meetings the participants critiqued a globalization where economic profits have the priority over social justice and ecological sustainability.

The assembly in Prague is a gathering for Christians from former Eastern block countries to share their experiences. Most people came from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and East Germany. There have been meetings of this kind in other countries every three years.

This year’s main organizer was our partner church, the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, and PC(USA) mission workers Joyce and John Michael were among the organizers and Bible study leaders. The theme was from Philippians 3: 7-14, “Invited to hope.”

The lectures and Bible study groups focused on “Hope for the church. Hope for Europe. Hope for our Society,” a discussion about the loss of many hopes 15 years after the “Velvet Revolution” and the fall of the Berlin wall.

In a unifying Europe, people welcome democracy and human rights standards, and they criticize bureaucracy, social coldness, high unemployment rates, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Military power seems to be accepted as a normal instrument for a greater Europe, following the example of other super powers.

During the Communist period, Christians and churches in Eastern Europe hoped that after the fall of communism things would change and Christian values would become more visible. But society now is still highly secular, and ordinary people have exchanged Communism for consumerism. During the Communist period, social coherence and solidarity were important in order to overcome ideological deformations, and these are again important to overcome the ideology of consumerism.

Let me finish my summer letter with a prayer of the German cabaret artist Hans Dieter Hüsch:

May God our Lord give us a great summer, fill us a basket full of silence and many hopeful gazes into green and blue, meadows and water and white shores—quiet months. May God take the shouting out and prescribe quietness.

That includes taking business out of the hand of the warriors, taking away the hopelessness from those without jobs, and preventing the mighty from becoming mafiosi.

We can help these things come to pass and help life to pass more slowly—that the world lose its panic and human beings take time to say: “We love you!”

So that our heart is able to breathe again, our eye stops wriggling, and our ear really listens and doesn’t forget.

And we want to ask our Lord again to bless this model everywhere and, because it’s urgent, immediately and forever.

Thank you and amen

Burkhard

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 160