Bishop: Christian witness can only be successful ecumenically

Bishop Wilmer: Christian witness can only be successful ecumenically.  Speech at the start of the "Nevertheless" Conference

What might the church of the future look like? More than 500 participants are discussing this at a conference in Hanover. The Hildesheim Bishop Heiner Wilmer directly mentioned an important keyword for the churches: ecumenism.

Cathcon:  So much for the Mass, an essential part of Catholic witness.

Hildesheim's Bishop Heiner Wilmer relies on the co-operation of the various Christian churches for the future of Christianity. Christian witness in a highly complex world can only succeed ecumenically, he said on Friday at the start of the "Nevertheless Conference for New Things in the Church" in Hanover. Until Sunday, around 520 people will be discussing impulses for the church's future.

The theologian Thomas Arnold then urged the people in the church to be confident and energetic. “We don’t need any apocalypse junkies,” said the Director of the Catholic Academy of the Dresden-Meißen Diocese on Friday in Hanover. World, church and faith - "none of it will look the way we know it now in ten years." Now is the time to think about how the church can be there for people in the future. “It takes drive, courage, humility and empathy.”

Many people are currently alienated from faith in God, and the coming generation will already be untouched by it, says Arnold. Christianity has never faced such a challenge in its 2,000-year history. His homeland of Saxony is a good place for learning in the future: "The phenomenon of not wanting to know anything about God will spread across the board."

No decline in values

Contrary to some opinions, turning away from God does not threaten an extraordinary decline in values, said Arnold. "At this time, Churches are neither the only nor the central value agencies of a democratic society." The church does not gain its relevance by being invited to citizens' meetings. It becomes relevant when it connects people with God and makes their lives better.

He advised the churches not to give the AfD too much space. “We mustn’t jump over every stick this party throws at us,” he said. “As Christians, let us not let our stories, which are our own and have shaped our tradition, be taken out of our hands,” demanded the theologian. The church must motivate people to get involved in democratic processes. This also means that AfD voters should not be excluded from communities from the outset, but rather that they should be confronted.

The conference is organized by the Diocese of Hildesheim, the Bonifatiuswerk, the Center for Applied Pastoral Research (zap) at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Porticus organization. In addition to Germany, participants come from Austria, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the USA and Malaysia.

Cathcon: So much for the great salvific doctrines of the Catholic Church which are diluted or dissolved by ecumenism.  To think this man almost become head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.