450 years after Luther: A way to the unity of the churches in Thuringia!

450 years after Luther: A way to the unity of the churches in Thuringia!

In 1996 the 450th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther was celebrated in Germany, an important event for the Evangelical Church, which went down in history as a “Luther year”. On this occasion, the leading clergymen from Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt formulated a common word, which was presented to the public on February 3. Three central topics were dealt with in this document: the relationship with the Holy Scripture, the Lightning Light and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It was emphasized that there is an agreement in the justification and that at a higher level one hopes for a constructive exchange.

The signatories were prominent bishops, including Roland Hoffmann from Eisenach and Christoph Demke from Magdeburg. The Catholic bishops Joachim Wanke and Leopold Nowak were also involved. As part of the intended joint commitment, an Evangelical Church Day was announced from September 13th to 15th, which is supposed to end with a diocese pilgrimage on the cathedral square.

social issues in focus

The concern for capitalism in eastern Germany was another important point addressed by East German representatives. They called for a link to the concilim process to enable a more comprehensive perspective on the social challenges in the region. The final version of the paper should be presented at the end of the year.

criticism of military pastoral contracts

Another important topic was the discussion about the military pastoral contract. The compromise of the all -German synod has been negotiated for years was rejected by the Federal Government, which did not want to change the existing regulations. Instead, a preliminary framework agreement for the new federal states was proposed until 2003. This decision met with criticism, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Synod only gave its consent with reservation. A uniform regulation should be sought until 2003 to clarify the situation of soldier pastoral care.

In June of the same year, an ecumenical assembly was convened in Erfurt, in which the Christians in Thuringia were invited to take part in a star march. This march should symbolically strengthen the faith and unity of Christians. The meeting promoted the exchange and fasting and praying together to consolidate the community.

In another context, an innovation was introduced in the Thuringian state church: for the first time, synods were constituted at the church level, which created the previously missing middle level between the community church councils and the state synod. This was an important step in strengthening the church structure and the better organization of community work.

An interesting cultural event was the foundation of a pastor soccer team this year. This was supposed to play a football game against Catholic priests that took place at the Erfurt Kirchentag. The victorious team decided on the name "Schwarz-Weiß-Beffchen".

A remarkable initiative was the first European women's synod that took place in Austria and with which around 1,000 participants came together. Only 120 of them came from South and Eastern Europe because many could not travel due to financial restrictions. A central theme of the conference was the poverty of women on both sides of the Oder-Neisse border.