EKD Press Releases
A House of Living Stones
Report of the Council: Nikolaus Schneider before the Eleventh EKD Synod in Magdeburg
November 6, 2011
Today, Sunday Präses Nikolaus Schneider, the chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), made an oral presentation of the Council report before the EKD Synod in Magdeburg. The leitmotif of Schneider's report was the biblical quotation "a house of living stones," in reference to the second chapter of the first letter of Peter, which says:
"Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:4-5)
Schneider called the Evangelical Church in Germany an "open and missionary house." At the same time as the church trusted God to guide and move it, it had the "courage to reform, the courage to transform, to tear down walls and barriers that hinder and to create and inhabit new spaces." Schneider conceded that within the church there also was, "as a matter of principle, reluctance with regard to the needed changes." Nevertheless, the Council chair, despite a perceptible reform weariness, reiterated the "growing need for reform."
Schneider praised at length the encounter between the Protestant church and Pope Benedict XVI in Erfurt on September 23, 2011. The Pope in fact had made a strong ecumenical statement by paying a return visit to the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt 500 years after Luther's trip to Rome and by being the first Pope to celebrate an ecumenical service of worship in a key Luther heritage site. At the non-public meeting with the delegation, the Pope strongly praised Luther's quest for the God of grace that was "driving force of his whole life, as well as his Reformation questioning."
The Pope's sermon at the public worship service, meanwhile, had a completely different tone. "Burning issues with regard to the ecumenical dialogue had been ignored, or addressed in a mistaken or a mistakable way," Schneider said. Concrete, encouraging impulses for continuing ecumenical and theological efforts with regard to the question of the understanding of the ministry and of the church had been left by the way side. One positive outcome according to Schneider was the fact that Pope Benedict XVI's visit had "set the theological tenor," which Protestant Christians could also accept, especially "Do not forget God! Search for Him as inwardly and intensively as did Martin Luther in his time in his quest to find the God of grace."
The question about God is the "core question of Reformation faith," Schneider said, but "it is indispensable for the Evangelical Church in Germany to ask questions about God with people, not without them or passing them by. And to search, with people-with women and men, with lay people and theologians, with bishops and synods-for specific answers about God's word in the world."
Schneider advocated moving from an "ecumenism of profiles" to an "ecumenism of gifts," so that the respective profiles could be understood as "complementarity and enrichment" rather than as "differentiation or identity strengthening to the detriment of others." Schneider warmly invited "Roman Catholic brethren" to join in the 2017 Reformation Jubilee celebrations. It was essentially a Christ Jubilee, for conversion to Christ as the basis of all faith was the core concern of the Reformation.
Schneider further said that the church had the task to open itself up and "become a missionary church to the outside world." At the same time, however, the church must also build sanctuaries and shelters for Christians around the world who are persecuted and oppressed. Schneider: "We therefore pray and plead on behalf of our persecuted fellow Christians in, for example, Egypt, North Korea, Indonesia and many other countries. We, therefore, are looking, in ecumenical fellowship, for ways and places for them to be protected."
The Council chair praised the Federal Republic's decision to abandon reliance on nuclear energy, but emphatically reiterated the fact that the problem of where and how radioactive waste could be securely stored had still not been resolved. Such storage, however, was a "burden for eternity" and Germany must at present confront this "national responsibility"; it could not redeem itself by exporting waste abroad.
The current financial economy and sovereign debt crisis threatened to destroy the "stability of entire nations," Schneider went on to say. This jeopardizes the means of existence of many human beings. The impact of the financial market and sovereign debt crisis hit the world's poor hardest. A policy was therefore needed to regulate financial players and to manage financial structures in such as was to ensure the "livelihoods of many persons" and not just the "enrichment of a few."
In this connection, the Council chair reiterated the fact that the political and economic unification of Europe was to be understood as a "project for peace" that needed to be pursued. The dramatic developments of recent days had brought weaknesses in the European Union to light. It was thus becoming increasingly evident that a common currency required a "uniform financial and economic policy." Accordingly, Schneider warned of a "democracy deficit," but, at the same time, emphasized that the current crisis was also an opportunity for the EU to correct errors in order that the founding vision of Europe as a "comprehensive peace project" might be preserved and implemented.
Schneider indicated that the personal involvement of Europe's politicians in crisis management deserved fair, but critical respect and called for the intercession of our congregations.
Magdeburg, November 6, 2011
Press Office of the EKD
Reinhard Mawick