Marc Lenders Europe from a Protestant Church Perspective
Alison Elliot A Scottish Perspective on Europe
Richard Seebohm Summing up the Presentations
Philip Walters Summing up the Conference
For five gloriously sunny days in May – some might say ‘too hot’ – the Kirchentag descended upon Hannover, the city where it had first begun and had met twice before. ‘The Kirchentag has come home’ proclaimed Bishop Margot Käßmann, herself a former Kirchentag General Secretary and now head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hannover, in her greeting to the international guests, a theme endorsed throughout by the main railway station which greeted bilingually the arrival of every train ‘to the city of the 2005 Kirchentag’. Stir in the statistics: 105,000 participants, of whom some 5,000 international guests came from 87 countries (this last figure higher than ever before), sharing in 3,600 events at 500 venues aided and abetted by 50,000 voluntary workers. Sheila Brain, the English representative on the Central Planning Committee, reckons it has become the largest regular gathering of Christians from around the world outside of a World Council of Churches General Assembly, and of its essential nature much more accessible to the enthusiast. Professor Eckhard Nagel, the Kirchentag President, described it as a forum for a conversation on society and its future between interest groups, facilitated by Christians who are themselves active players. Added to which it is above all a lay-led, church-supported movement.
Continue reading “The 2005 Kirchentag”When we in Wales first invited the Adelheid Project to come to Brecon in August 2004 we little thought what effect it would have on us!
Women Walking Together is a group of about 25 members who meet on a regular basis throughout Wales to discuss spirituality issues. About 95 per cent of us are Christian but we also believe that we exist for women of all faiths and none – and it is in sharing our journey together that we learn. Three years ago we chose to affiliate to the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women – but the European experience is still relatively new to many of us, and some are still quite wary of what goes on across the water!
Continue reading “What we Learnt from the Adelheid Project!”I am not only from Communist Romania, I am also a Christian brought up in the conservative Pentecostal tradition. Nevertheless I am convinced that the problems of the world today cannot be solved without ecumenical dialogue in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
During my high school years in Oradea I was confronted by two groups: the Orthodox and the atheists. A young Orthodox who discovered that I was an Evangelical told me that I had rejected the true faith. The atheists told me that I was nothing, that there was no future for me and that my experience of God was just a fantasy.
The Communist period in Romania was characterised by monologue rather than dialogue. For Evangelical Christians their monologue consisted of questions about suffering, persecution, prison and corrupt leaders.
Continue reading “The Importance of Dialogue for the Evangelical Churches in Romania in the Context of the Expansion of the European Union”Two recent documents clearly illustrate the mentality prevailing amongst conservative Orthodox clergy and laity in Greece, the Balkans, Russia and the Greek diaspora on ecumenical relations and non-Orthodox denominations. They were originally published in Greek and have been translated by Fr Maximos.
Continue reading “Current Greek Orthodox Attitudes to Ecumenical Relations”Greece is like the daughter of a mixed marriage. As the first EU member-state of Orthodox tradition and due to its religious, cultural and historical profile, Greece has a dual outlook both to the West and the East. It did not directly experience the Renaissance, the Reformation or the Enlightenment and is the only Orthodox country not to have lived through Communism. It is also at the origins of the classical tradition but also ambivalent towards the western world. Because of that, Greece has a somewhat exceptional socio-religious profile compared to the Western European religious model of secularisation and religious modernity/postmodernity.
Continue reading “The Greek ID Cards Conflict: a Case Study on Religion and National Identity against the Challenges of Increasing EU Integration and Pluralism”The aim of the project Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective (WREP) has been to look at the role of majority churches as agents of social welfare across different European societies. Its essence can be found in the following questions:
The background to the project lies in (a) the significant economic and social changes currently taking place in all developed societies, not least in Europe and (b) an equally significant set of changes which relate to religion.Taken together these transformations challenge existing models of welfare organisation. The task moreover is highly topical: questions concerning the organisation of social welfare are high on the political agenda all over Europe.
Continue reading “Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective: Introduction to a Europe-Wide Research Project”