News
A selection of news relevant to EKD and of press releases of EKD's partner churches and church bodies. News used with permission from Ecumenical News International and other agencies.
Church Council Hopes to Organize 2017 Week of Prayer
October 21, 2011
Ludwigshafen (epd). The Council of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK) hopes to organize the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the Reformation Jubilee year 2017. The church umbrella organization announced on Thursday that its national meeting of members in Ludwigshafen had decided to apply to the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity to host the event.
According to ACK sources, the ACK wishes to emphasize the international ecumenical character of Reformation thinking in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity's worship services and materials. "In common prayer we fulfill the command of Jesus Christ across all the historical borders that separate churches and congregations from each other," said ACK national chair Protestant Bishop Friedrich Weber of Brunswick. This would unite Christians in Germany with Christians all over the world, he added.
Traditionally, a national working group proposes a theme for the week of prayer. This theme is elaborated by an international commission. The commission's members are appointed by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches.
The meeting of members did not endorse an application by Saxony-Anhalt to host a third Ecumenical Kirchentag in 2017 in the Luther Town of Wittenberg. The Council of Christian Churches in Germany would welcome and support a decision by the German Protestant Church Convention [Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag] and the Central Committee of German Catholics to hold a joint church convention, but does not wish to take the initiative itself, it was reported.
ACK chair Weber emphasized that, in the future, the church umbrella association wished to remain a space for ecumenical dialogue for its member churches and not become a "national council of churches," following the example of the United States. Both major Christian churches wish to preserve their autonomy and leverage vis-à-vis the State and the global ecumenical community. They would therefore not agree to the creation of a joint structure representing churches.
The ecumenical organization has 17 member churches and church-related associations, as well as four churches that are guest members. The umbrella organization claims to represent the large majority of the approximately 57 million Christians living in Germany.
October 21, 2011