Germany is again a missionary land

1000 years after the conversion of Germany the Head of the Protestant Church in Germany again confesses to acute mission needs. Bishop Wolfgang Huber admits: 'The fear of being considered too religious is great.'

Germany according to the view of the Protestant Church is again a missionary region. The 'dramatic decline' of the church membership in East Germany was balanced by a 'gradual erosion of religiosity in many areas of the old Federal Republic, the Head of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), Bishop Wolfgang Huber of Berlin said this Thursday in Kassel. The realization that all this is a great missionary challenge we take on more slowly, that more than 1000 years after the Christianization of our region, a missionary situation has arisen, confronts with insistence the usual religiosity, 'Huber said opening the three-day EKD 'Future Workshop'.

The Church directed the question 'How do I become a Christian?' too often only to people who already were Christian, criticized Huber. They must release themselves from a triple mental captivity. That one is taken prisoner in one's own society: 'For us, approaching overburdened mothers is as difficult as embittered Hartz IV recipients.' This comes from a 'spiritual timidity ': 'The fear of being considered too religious is great.' The third 'mental captivity' is that of a spiritual 'life on tick' through activism: 'We call to the utmost on the forces of both professional and volunteer staff without questioning the necessity and purpose of the activities required.' The process of reform of the Church is therefore also a 'call for more composure.'

'We need values, so that our freedom is not overwhelmed'
Para about meeting itself omitted.

Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) warned the congress that new media like the Internet were threatening to make life superficial life. "The constant availability and speed of communication lead to pressure for immediate response. For a thoughtful, balanced response there is often no more room." Sometimes society "appears to loose proportion". "We need values and orientation, so that the seemingly limitless freedom of our society does not overwhelm us ," Schäuble said. "The answers to these questions of public policy must also be found by the church."

Cathcon: Having been at least partly responsible for the dechristianisation of Germany, the EKD have little room to complain.

Interesting comments how activism is a substitute for real religious life.

"‘Europe will return to the Faith (Cathcon-not the EKD idea of it!), or she will perish. The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith.’  —Hilaire Belloc, _Europe and the Faith_"




Cathcon: