Hannover Evangelischer Kirchentag, April 30th to May 4th 2025
On the train from Brussels and Cologne, which arrived 45 minutes late in Hannover on Tuesday evening, April 29th (IMG_9867.jpg), passengers had complained that poor time-keeping and infrastructure maintenance had become a noticeable feature of German trains in recent years.
The first post-war Protestant Church Congress (Evangelischer Kirchentag) met in Hannover in 1949, to address what many felt was their Church’s failure to resist Nazism. This year the local TV news reported that 80 thousand people had signed up for the 39th Kirchentag under the title “Mutig, Stark, Behertzt” (Brave, Strong, Courageous)- or as the “Religion-Free Zone” exhibition mounted in the town centre put it: “Brave Lying, Strong Exaggeration, Courageous Cover-up”, adding advice on how to leave the Church and save yourself Church Tax (an additional 8 or 9% on income tax) IMG_9930.jpg, plus a large effigy of Moses with an 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt pay for thy Kirchentag thyself” (without local city or regional subsidies). IMG_9927.jpg.
Inevitably this report can cover only a small selection of sessions on offer during the five days. Kirchentag always begins on Wednesday afternoons with a memorial of local events in the Nazi era- in this case by the Maschsee Lake, where in 1945 the city’s survivors were made to give a dignified burial to many concentration camp prisoners, forced labourers and Soviet PoWs.
Mornings start at 9.30 with an hour’s Bible Study, following the same text in up to 20 places- in our case at the Marktkirche (Market Church) in the city centre IMG_9856.jpg. Thursday’s was Mark 7, verses 24 to 30, the encounter of Jesus with a Syro-Phoenician woman, who he initially rejects with a racist slur (“dogs”), which she challenges and refuses to be silenced. If we want Jesus to be “perfect” this is very problematic- but a Jesus who learns from his mistakes perhaps teaches us more, as does the woman’s dogged persistence.
From 11 to 1 a session “Courageous for Peace- Daring to be Non-Violent” (also in Marktkirche), with testimony from Colombia (reconciling former soldiers to their villages); Croatia (an inter-faith network from former enemy states); Lampedusa- (“Mediterranean Hope”, working with migrants); and Belorussia (resisting autocracy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine).
15.00 to 17.00: “Climate Change- What Resources are needed for Renewables?”- a discussion of challenges involved in changing from fossil fuels to renewables for energy, mobility, digital and defence. Major issues include ensuring that the people gain the benefit from the extraction of resources (especially in Africa), and the present-day near monopolies of production for some materials (eg magnesium in China). The production of “Green” hydrogen (using solar and wind power), is currently 20 percent more expensive than hydrogen conventionally produced, but has potential if given temporary subsidies.
None of the Friday morning Bible Studies gave translations into English, but an International service at St Peter’s, Kleefeld IMG_9871.jpg (which holds a regular monthly Sunday service in English), was based on the day’s text- Jeremiah 29, verses 1 to 14, with interviews of people living away from their “homeland” and a sermon dealing with both chosen and enforced exile.
15.00 to 17.00, “Spirituality in Times of Crisis and in Everyday Life” included contributions from three people- one had faced a life crisis around the age of 30, found a new balance through pilgrimage to Compostela and Finisterre in northern Spain, and now supports others who want to explore pilgrimage. The second a mother whose daughter suffered from painful neuro-dermatitis, which medicine seemed unable to treat. She discovered that laying hands on her daughter while saying the Lord’s Prayer gave her a good night’s sleep and over nine months she was completely cured. An “Open Hands School” now helps others discover and practice the same healing. Finally someone who read about Dag Hammerskjold suffering burn-out through having “the pain of the world on his desk”, and “seeing the bottom of your pain is the beginning of something new”, who went on to found an “Open Monastery” in French-speaking Switzerland to welcome others suffering in the same way. (IMG_9901.jpg– the hall before the meeting).
Friday evenings are always a shared Communion, often around an informal meal, but this time an “Anglican [Anglo-Catholic]-Lutheran Mass”, at a church on a post-WW2 estate built mainly for refugees from Eastern Europe IMG_9881.jpg, IMG_9885.jpg. The sermon (John 10:7 to 11) stressed the need to respectfully present the exclusive claims of Jesus (inter-faith dialogue is a more common Kirchentag emphasis). “High Church Lutheranism” emerged after WW1 to resist State influence on the Church, but with a strongly “Catholic” emphasis rather than the more Reformed tradition of Barth and the Confessing Church. As if to underline this, the congregation were asked to sing all five verses and choruses of “I am the bread of life” twice- first in German as the Offertory hymn before Communion, and afterwards in English.
Saturday morning Bible studies were based on Matthew 28, verses 1 to 10, the women at the tomb on the first Easter Sunday. Marion Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC (who spoke out at Donald Trump’s inauguration service) emphasised the courage of the women, who were able to conquer their fear while the male disciples had fled the scene.
In a later interview Sally Azar, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (which has six congregations in Jerusalem, Amman and the West Bank) said: “Violence is not a solution for us”. They work to create dialogue and build bridges, hoping for a two-state solution, though that seems “far away”. Not all Palestinians support Hamas, but she was also pessimistic about finding solutions with Netanyahu as Prime Minister. What is important is “we all receive the same rights, and that everyone is treated equally- that we no longer experience occupation, and no more walls separate us”.
11.00 to 13.00: “When your Homeland becomes Uninhabitable- a Conversation with Climate Witnesses” IMG_9895.jpg, IMG_9891.jpg – the Lutheran World web published a summary of this which is here: https://lutheranworld.org/news/conversation-climate-witnesses-kirchentag,
Our final session was the debate “Peace does not Come by Itself” from 15.00 to 17.00. The organisers had clearly had difficulties setting this up- the Moderator referred to invitations to “radical Pacifists” to take part, which had been refused. Returning home we discovered that there had been an “alternative” meeting going on also in Hannover, where Margot Kässmann, a former Bishop of Hannover well known for promoting the pacifist position over several decades, was one of the speakers. In the early publicity for the Kirchentag debate she had been included as a participant, but had been replaced by the current Bishop, who had earlier argued with Kässmann about the export of arms to Ukraine. She was recently appointed to a position in the Families Ministry of the new Federal Government, and was replaced at short notice in this debate by the Vice-President of the Evangelische Kirche, who referred to himself as a kind of “Circus” theologian, called to be skilled in “Tiger-taming”. He reflected on the dilemmas the pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced during WW2, confronted with the apparently unstoppable progress of Hitler and the Nazis, and the failure of the churches to confront what was happening. Janusz Reiter, a former Polish ambassador to Germany and to the USA, spoke strongly of the need to forcibly resist Russia’s re-definition of “peace in Europe”- “Radical Pacifism is simply a recipe for allowing more people in Ukraine to be killed”. Some of the audience left, but there was also a good deal of applause. “Well, that went down better than when I said it twenty years ago”, he responded. Vice-Admiral Carsten Stawitzki, the Head of the Department of Armaments of the Federal Government called himself a “realistic pacifist”- the aim is peace, but in order to achieve that it is sometimes necessary to use force. The luxury of avoiding the dilemma by depending on the USA is no longer open to us. Nevertheless, the Church does not “sit on the Emperor’s lap”, and must engage critically with government policy. Jonathan Kivatsi is President of the Baptist Churches in Central Africa and a Professor at the University of the Greet Lakes in Goma, North Kivu, Congo. Baptists have always held to a clear distinction between the Church and the State, and this has sometimes led them to a position of non-involvement in politics (including pacifism). But present-day conflicts (especially between Rwanda and Congo, with Africa in many ways still dealing with the consequences of the 1885 European division of Africa) have forced them to become involved, sometimes meddling and causing more chaos, but also learning how to build reconciliation and peace. It is clear that there are sharp divisions in Germany and the German churches, and whether these will be reconciled in the proposed Peace Resolution to be presented to the Kirchentag at Düsseldorf in 2027 remains to be seen.