Ecumenism is moribund - oh no it isn't!

The WCC stand at the Kirchentag is underneath a large sign that says "Gelebte Ökumene" which means "lived out ecumenism" or perhaps even "living ecumenism". This leads to some rather "spöttisch" remarks by a few of the visitors to the stand "huh, ecumenism these days is all abaout an atmosphere of resignation" one person just said, pointing up to the sign, and this was even before I had a chance to say "hello". Just as well that with my Prussian ancestry I am used to such muscular discussion!
We ended up having a really good discussion about how blaming those at the top for a perceived current lack of progress in ecumenism is actually very unproductive, it means we don't take responsibility for trying to move things forwards ecumenically in our own contexts, sometimes it even means that we use the supposed lack of progress at the top as an excuse to stop thinking in ecumenical ways in local and national settings. Of course this doesn't mean we should be satisfied with lack of progress, and we do need to continue to put pressure on the international levels through bilateral and multilateral dialogue.
We got to have this conversation because we started doing something practical together, drawing hands on the cloth petition against small arms. And doing this simple and rather childish thing helped take the conversation onto a different level and perhaps calmed things down after the rather feisty beginning. As we drew and were joined by others the tenor of the conversation changed and so did it's content. We talked about lively local ecumenical projects and were even able to speak about how there is real hope that change may just be around the corner. So much is happening, saying that things are moribund may actually be cover for saying that we're finding it difficult to rediscover our enthusiasm and get motivated, and so we look for someone else to blame.
So it was good to have a muscular beginning to a conversation about ecumenism. We ended feeling more energised and hopeful about the future, perhaps also more able to see what is already going on and being planted ecumenically all around us.

Hands together to drop small arms and for a strong international treaty

Today is the first full day of the Kirchentag and we're working hard at the WCC and Bossey stand in the marketplace. This is almost a live blogpost from the stand. We've already had lots of fascinating conversations with people from all over Germany but also from around the world - visitors in the first two hours from Congo and Ethiopia, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Britain - and those are just the ones I spoke with.
The activity that's working really well is collecting signatures in favour of a strong treaty for small weapons reduction. People are taking photos of the different ways they draw around their hands and sign the cloth petition, some of the hand outlines have been really well decorated. It's really good to have brought this to the Kirchentag from the International Ecumenical Peace convocation.
The Norwegian Churches have started the initiative, now we have to hope that some folk here at the Kirchentag will take the initiative up here in Germany and in the other countries people are from. Let's get things going from below so that pressure is put on those at the negotiating table in 2012 to make a strong treaty and reduce small arms use throughout the world.
Meanwhile I shall be faced with a technical challenge this evening, how to get thephotos off my new mobile phone and onto the facebook page. hmm...
and this is my first blog post with my new netbook and I can't find where teh phots are stored here either. Ah well by the end of the Kirchentag perhaps I'll have it all sorted out!

Beginning with remembrance at the Kirchentag

Here is Dresden the rebuilt Frauenkirche, the church of our lady, stands as a positive symbol for the energy of people coming together to rebuild from the rubble of war even 60 years later.
I hadn´t realised until reading the Kirchentag general secretary´s contribution to today´s opening press conference that the Frauenkirche also has a less positive history. It is where the Arian paragraphs were voted through by the church of Saxony without any hesitation during the Third Reich. A shameful bit of Christian history.

Every Kirchentag always begins with a time of remembrance before the official opening events. Today this took place as a pilgrimage between Dresden´s Synagogue and the Frauenkirche. To inscribe real rather than false hope in society we have to remember the past with its terrors and all its betrayals, then we can celebrate the joy and success of the present with something approaching integrity and work for better futures.

When I next visit the Frauenkirche I shall also try to go on an inner pilgrimmage of remembrance, I am thankful for those who do not forget, even more thankful for those who forgive and grateful for all who carry hope forwards. I given thanks for places of reconciliation that do not have perfect histories but which do give us stories which challenge and make us think.

A heart for the Kirchentag in the East

Over the next three days here in Dresden people are hanging the bright green Kirchentag scarves around their necks and setting off to huge and much smaller events throguhout the city. It seems busier than ever at this Kirchentag and it's not just an impression. Today's press conference confirmed that there are more participants at this Kirchentag than at Bremen, Cologne or Hannover. Over 117,000 people have bought three day tickets and there are over 6,800 foreign visitors.Some are even saying that this is truly the first Kirchentag for the whole of Germany, for a united Germany.
Tonight Dresden has more than 250, 000 people in the streets for the evening of encounters. The atmosphere is great even if the weather is a little cool, at least it isn't raining though. I wonder whether it is the city itself which also attracts people, many have come on a cycling pilgrimage to get here. Set on the Elbe and as a symbol of post war reconciliation, it's a beautiful but also a very meaningful place.
Dreasden also refers to itself as being in heart of Europe. The Czech and Polish borders are not far away at all. So this Kirchentag is trying to particularly open up contacts with the churches and academies in central and eastern Europe. There's a great programme at the Three Kings Church organised jointly by the Prague ecumenical academy and Dresden's church house. It's wonderful to walk the streets and be in the hotel lobby and hear Czech, Hungarian and Polish being spoken. and tonight the city centre is pulsing first to the sound of the different opening services and now to concerts. Later tonight there will be an open air performance of a specially commissioned piece of music based on the Kirchentag theme and thousands of candles will be lit.
One of the other moving things about being in Dresden is seeing the memorials in the streets to the peaceful revolution in 1989.
The WCC general secretary has also spoken today of how churches in Dresden promoted reconciliation between former enemies after the Second World War. They also supported peace and justice groups during the time of communist rule and in doing so had helped advance the peaceful revolution of 1989 which brought down the Berlin Wall and eventually united East and West Germany.

Being here also reminds me that the East of Europe is important to me. It's good to be back. This may be my last Kirchentag for a while so it's good to be in what I like to think of as "my" part of Germany. Really pleased too that it is already such a success.

On a train to Dresden

This morning I am on a train to Dresden and it's like a train to parts of my past in the GDR - from Frankfurt through Fulda - where the German Protestant Kirchentag has its headquarters - and then into the East with Eisenach, Erfurt, Leipzig and then Dresden. So many friends I could visit, so many memories in each place but not quite enough time to stop off and enjoy some of my favourite cities ...
Just over 19 years ago we began our honeymoon by arriving by train in Dresden and ended it leaving on a train from Erfurt.
So now to the real work of the day which is to prepare a short presentation on the structures and vision of the WCC in German for the international committee of the Kirchentag.

The ecumenical boat

How to pray - eyes closed or eyes open?

On the last evening of the Kirchentag a special service was held to launch a book which two of our friends Sabine Udodesku and Luca Negro have been closely involved in shepherding towards publication.

It's a wonderfrul resource of liturgical texts, each prayer is printed in six languages and an accompanying CD further languages too. It's a great idea, a very practical way of celebrating ecumenism and is one fruit of the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu (where this blog was born!).
Called Laudate Omnes Gentes it includes some simple outlines for prayer services and about 40 liturgical songs to accompany the words in many languages. You can find out more here.

By the time the Saturday night of the Kirchentag arrived I was pretty tired so it was quite an experience to be one of about 4000 people gathered in one of the huge halls at the congress centre and to feel the sense of quiet and prayerfulness as we sang and prayed from our cardboard kirchentag "paphocke". I particularly enjoyed the opening Iona chant "come Holy spirit" which we sang in Geneva this morning and which I sense will become a new favourite of mine.

During the service several religious leaders were invited to share something about a favourite prayer. I particularly enjoyed Roman Catholic bishop Gerhard Feige speaking about the ecumenical experience of praying together in former East Germany. Margot Kässmann spoke last and chose Luther's morning and evening prayers, setting out how they offer a framework and the promise of God's angels watching over us whatever happens. By the time she had finished speaking I had tears on my cheeks, what she said came from the heart, was not over personal yet could speak to many.
This Sunday it was the words of Olav Fykse Tveit, our own general secretary, which came back to me. Standing behind the communion table with my colleague Bernard I realised I was praying the Lord's prayer with my eyes shut. Tveit had spoken simply and powerfully of how when he was a boy he had been encouraged to think that to pray properly you had to close your eyes. Getting more involved in ecumenism has led him to understand that he needed somehow to keep his eyes open to pray - even if only metaphorically - to see others, their need and suffering and to pray with them Christ's final prayer "that all may be one".
Since that tired Saturday night I've been thinking about the eyes open and eyes closed question where prayer is concerned
- do we really see others, their suffering, their joy, their concern?
- how do we hold this complex world in prayer before the God who created it?
Sometimes it is only by opening our eyes outwards that we truly see ourselves, only by closing our eyes that we are able to concentrate on the needs of others. Sometimes to see others, to pray for and with them, I need to physically close my eyes, yet the eye of the heart, the eye of prayer needs to be open.


More about Laudate omnes Gentes: Praying together- resources and songs for ecumenical celebrations here.
Photo: Nadine Malzkorn/2. ÖKT

Busy

I've been busy. Kirchentag is like that. It tends to take up not only all of the available time but also more than the usual amount of enregy too. Nick Baines has been blogging about his time there and seems to have enjoyed it - i'm quite jealous about him seeing Küng and Motlmann in action.
I spent most of my time at the WCC stall in the Agora and had a fascinating time getting people to write tweets for us and engaging wtih people about ecumenism and the WCC's work. I'll admit to looking forward to my beer at the end of each day - even if it was for the most part not the marker of the end of the day but just an opener to the next shift of writing and translating. Anyway, it's taking me a while to recover from the backlog of work following Kirchentag, so normal blogging service will return only after a while - I have two big writing projects to deal with this weekend as well as several hundred pages of proof reading ... more from me soon, who knows I might even have some thoughts about ecumenism to share with you!

Sermon from the opening service of Ecumenical Kirchentag

I have just posted the English translation of the sermon from the opening service of the 2nd Ecumenical Kirchentag to the docs sections youa can find it here. It was a dialogue sermon between Bishop Friedrich and Archbishop Marx and worked well. "That we may have hope ..."
Interesting how many references there have been to the issue of child sex abuse in the church in the opening service through the prayers and then through the greetings from the Bundespresident Horst Köhler. The issue does seem to be being faced squarely - at least now.

Building the WCC stand at the Ecumenical Kirchentag in Munich

Have spent part of today putting together the WCC stand at the Kirchentag. We have twice as much space as we expected so it's been quite challenging but fun too - I have really great colleagues and we'll finish tomorrow. If you're in Munich come and visit us in Hall A 6 stand E28.
And on Wednesday we begin tweeting - more on our twitter feed soon.

Open Letter from the Kirchentag to Margot Kässmann

The following open letter from the German Protestant Kirchentag to Margot Kässmann ends by saying "thank you that you gave yourself body and soul to being the pastor and friend to so many people in this country".


Offener Brief des Kirchentages an Dr. Margot Käßmann

Sehr geehrte, liebe Frau Dr. Käßmann,
wir nehmen betroffen Ihre Entscheidung zur Kenntnis, vom Amt der
Vorsitzenden des Rates der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland und als
Landesbischöfin der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers
zurückzutreten.
Trotzdem ist unser Bedauern und unsere Traurigkeit sehr groß, dass wir Sie
als kirchenleitende Persönlichkeit verlieren.

Wir wissen in Ihnen eine großartige Impulsgeberin für den Protestantismus
in Deutschland, für ein engagiertes evangelisches Profil in verlässlicher
ökumenischer Verbundenheit und eine große Freundin und aktive
Unterstützerin des Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentages. Ihre
Gradlinigkeit fordert unseren Respekt.

Es ist unsere tiefe christliche Überzeugung, dass Fehler vergeben werden
können, gerade dort, wo Verantwortung übernommen wird.

Danke, dass Sie mit Leib und Seele so vielen Menschen in diesem Land
Pastorin und Freundin sind. Bitte bleiben Sie es!

Fulda/Dresden, 24. Februar 2010
Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. Eckhard Nagel für den Vorstand des Deutschen
Evangelischen Kirchentages
Dr. Ellen Ueberschär, Generalsekretärin, Kollegium und Geschäftsführung
des Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentages

Wenn Sie sich diesem offenen Brief anschließen möchten, senden Sie uns
eine kurze e-Mail, die wir an Margot Käßmann weiterleiten:
info@kirchentag.de

Manure or sweet hay - what do carry in your back pack?

Giuseppe Platone, the longest serving member of the Kirchentag's international committee said his official goodbye to the committee and the Kirchentag's General secretary Ellen Ueberschär at the beginning of the Kirchentag in Bremen. He also handed over to his replacement from the Italian Waldensian Church on the committee Sergio Manna.
The Waldensian Church like many minority churches punches above its weight. In his speech Giuseppe also said how important it had been for him to feel that the Kirchentag made space for people from minority churches from beyond Germany's borders.
He brought all members of the committee a special present from the Waldensian valleys, called a kippa which is a small basket used to carry everything on peoples backs in the steep mountain farmlands. These baskets are symbols of hard work, minority, sustainable living and very much like a form of basket rucksack.
In a brief and moving meditation Giuseppe spoke about how people would carry all kinds of different things in these baskets depending on the time of year, from manure and seeds, clothing, harvested produce, food, firewood and newly cut hay to feed to livestock or to take down to be stored.
Sometimes the basket is full, sometimes waiting to be filled. It made him think of the biblical verse "bear ye one another's burdens" - though this didn't stop him from giving Ellen Ueberschär a much larger basket than the rest of us, the general secretary certainly has a heavier burden than many of us. As he handed out the baskets Giuseppe also remembered how his own basket had been filled with memories over the years and thought of how we fill each others' baskets with good things. He remembered a visit he had undertaken in the 1990s to many other members of the international committee and how this had cemented relationships and support for the Kirchentag.
As we wished him well we were all pleased to hear that Sergio will be maintaining the Waldensian Kirchentag tradition of an evening of Bible and spaghetti.
Meanwhile Giuseppe will also be leaving his position as the editor of the Protestant newspaper Riforma early next year - the lead article says Mensch wo bist du in Italian. We wish him well with all his new projects.
Meanwhile are you handing out manure or sweet hay from your back pack?

Leaving Bremen to pilgrim to Munich and Dresden

I arrived in Geneva and then back in Ferney Voltaire last night and am still reeling from the shock, brilliance and tiredness of all that is Kirchentag. Fortunately there were others at work today who had also been there and were similarly positive about the event - though everyone seems to be complainging about sore feet!
It really will take a while for all of the impressions, meetings and experiences to settle down into one.
As I left Bremen there was a big banner saying "the Kirchentag says thank you!" next to it was another with a count down clock to the next Protestant Kirchentag in Dresden in June 2011 - on Monday it was just 747 days to go. On Sunday I met friends from Bamberg on their way from the closing worship to catching their train home and they gave me a postcard with the Bremen town musicians on a pilgrimage to Munich where the 2nd Ecumenical Kirchentag will take place in May next year. Book the dates for your own pilgrimmage to Munich now - contact other churches near you to see how you can travel there with others. A real ecumenical pilgrimmage.

Pictures and videos of Kirchentag

You can find picutres and videos of the kirchentag experience here.
Now all eyes are turned to the Ecumenical Kirchentag in München - gingerbread hearts with Munich 2010 were being handed out in Bremen. People are being encouraged to set out as pilgrims to Munich - walk or cycle part of the way together with others and make the whole thing a longer ecumenical experience.

Sermon by Daniel Garrone for the closing worship of Kirchentag

I enjoyed reading, translating and then listening to this sermon and the more than 100,000 people at the service yesterday seemed to enjoy it enormously too. The most difficult part was where the English and German translations of the Bible don't quite have the same tone or content. This is a challenge in a lot of the work I get for translation.
The German says Rede und Antwort and the English in the NRSV says "make your defence". Also not helped by the fact the Kirchentag often makes its own translations of the Bible texts it uses. I did not have time for that on Saturday!
Now off to catch my train.

Sermon for the closing service of the German Protestant Kirchentag
by Daniele Garrone
Bible text: 1 Peter 3 9-17
Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called - that you might inherit a blessing. For
‘Those who desire life
and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil
and their lips from speaking deceit;
let them turn away from evil and do good;
let them seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

At the beginning of this Kirchentag we were posed a question which is still with us now as it closes:
"Mortal where are you?" The welcome to the Kirchentag added: "This means you and only you." We didn't understand this as a question the church was asking the world as a warning or complaint. From the outset we've heard this question from God as: "Christian, where are you?"
Or even more pointedly "Protestant Christian, where are you?"
I heard "little Waldensian Christian where are you?"
So "you, where are you?"
At the end of this Kirchentag, here and now, the Bible text poses us a similar question and asks us to give account for the hope that is in us.
A Kirchentag of accountability that calls heaven and earth into question? - God wants to bless us even through this.
"Christian, where are you?"

We live in a plural and democratic Europe, thank God! Sixty years of the ba-sic law in Germany, 63 years of the Italian constitution. We are integrated into our society and accepted by it, unlike those Peter was writing for. We are not subjected to hostility and certainly not to organised persecution. We can worship here publicly, even on this "Bürgerweide" (literal translation "citizen's meadow"), this is a real gift!

Our hopeless cries do not rise up to heaven (v.12). We do not suffer for the sake of justice (v.17). We could hardly even claim that anybody casts aspersions on our good way of life (v.16). At any rate, not here.
Elsewhere things are different and not only for Christians …
What form of accountability is asked of us?
How do we enter into debate with out fellow human beings?
Christianity is no longer the formative or even the over-ruling culture of Europe - if indeed it ever was. We are - even in the state churches - reduced to a minority. We are not so much oppressed, rather no notice is taken of us.
Of course there are critical voices, who dispute the Christian heritage of Europe. We should listen to them because they may be a channel through whom God is calling us to repentance.
If Christians - for instance in the debate about the European constitution - proudly talk about the role of Christians in European civilisation - about the Christian roots of Europe - then we should not forget how much violence, intolerance and blood the absolute claims of Christians have given rise to.
When churches talk about human rights and freedom it sometimes sounds as if these human rights and freedoms were discovered by the churches. We must look at the facts: human rights had to overcome resistance based on Christian arguments.
Church positions sometimes have the effect of seeming to want to trump a politically mature world, trying to show the world that has come of age that it would not be able to live without "God" as guardian.
In terms of apologetics, we quite like to argue that there are still the "ultimate questions" - death, guilt, and, today, the beginning and end of biological life. These will still remain the "hunting grounds" of the churches.
Can the One who blesses us, calls us to freedom and gives us hope really be reduced to being a mere guardian of others?
No, Peter's demand to always be ready to give an account to everyone goes in a very different direction!
And that is our call, even as a relatively small minority (and let's not exagger-ated that either!), not to live in a kind of languishing victim mentality. Perhaps this situation will actually mean that the message of hope can come to the fore.
The critical questions which are posed to us as Christians, may also be a source of blessing and healing self-questioning. It isn't enough when, unasked, we simply trumpet something or other in order to gloss over the weakness of our posi-tion.
At the Kirchentag I have learnt that trumpeting is good when a piece of music comes out, but not when a gratuitous piece of advice comes out! Our Christian voice should never be reduced to mere moralistic teaching - just think of that magic word "values"?
I fear ethics has become the area that we hope will attract people's interest, because we do not have enough hope to expect such interest in the Gospel. Protes-tants tend to prefer to do social ethics, Evangelicals to concentrate on sexual ethics and Catholics to be engaged in both areas. All of us are open to the temptation to use ethics as a way to gloss over our own lack of giving account of the hope that is in us. Peter, however, warns us loud and clear, "Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you".
Even between Christians ourselves, in the area of ecumenism, hope is not the first thing we notice. Our frustration is often more in evidence than the courage to dare to do something, we sense more realism than trust, more politics and resignation than vision.
“Christians, where are you?"
Here we are … and we can take Peter's warnings as signposts, as solace and encouragement to take new steps of hope in our situation of being both integrated and put to the test. In the first place these new steps must be led by Peter's words: "Do not repay evil for evil … on the contrary, repay with a blessing."
Whoever lives from blessing, from chewing the cud of the good Word that God has spoken, can only repeat that word and blessing. Whoever lives from the good works that God has done has no other task than to dare to do that which God's action makes possible. Don't you in German say "to offer a blessing", to "hand out" or "share" a blessing? Perhaps we Christians should do nothing more than those things related to the words "offer" and "share".
And we should do this - Peter warns us - with gentleness and reverence or ac-cording to other translations in a friendly and respectful way … Here we have a beautiful way to resist the Zeitgeist which seems to be dominated by the "revenge of God", by fundamentalist speeches, by obsession with truth and identity delusions.
In such a situation it is not enough to be a little bit less arrogant, to be a little less of a know-all, less condescending and old-fashioned.
It is not just a question of style, it's about the issue itself.
It's about the will to seek a dialogue which takes the point of view and criti-cisms of others seriously. This is not a result of relativism or a pick and mix approach to life as is so often claimed, nor is it a result of indifference. On the contrary … it is based on the awareness that only God is holy.
Gentleness is the way "to keep God holy in our hearts", the only way to bear witness to God's ways, without us thinking that these are our ways or trying to sell our ways as God's ways. Gentleness and reverence, friendliness and respect are the signposts along the way that God is calling us onto, without wanting to direct us.
Only in this way can we have a clear conscience. A conscience based not on the hubris of the know-all or I'm always right. A good conscience is not the false se-curity of taking one's own actions as right.
A good conscience is the gentle serenity to able to act and speak in a way that is based on what has been promised and given to us - by God.
A good conscience lives from hope and trust, not from ownership and fear.
It seems to me to be the most beautiful and most important embodiment of the Christian message in the world, in every situation to only say that which is promised to us. To only offer that which has been offered to us - and that was offered to all and for ever. Blessing shines forth from those who live blessing.
" Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you!" (V. 15).
We are called to an apologetics of hope and our only defence is hope itself. We are to defend hope - and not how reasonable or essential Christianity is. Hope -and not teaching or faith in morality. Hope as the first word of our Christian profile when others ask us to offer an account.
Yes, - hope which we can neither prove nor undermine. If hope is at the cen-tre, then the core of our message is no longer what it currently is, what we already have, already understand, what we can substantiate and defend. But rather, quite sim-ply - God himself, who comes and renews and creates until all in the end is com-pleted.
Hope turns our gaze from ourselves and gives us a grace-filled direction be-yond ourselves. The hope that is our driving force, in us and amongst us - is not a character trait or a spiritual quality. It comes to us from outside, it grips us. It is a sur-prise and a discovery in spite of ourselves and the world.
It really is as Luther taught us: The only things that are sure and true and those things that take us beyond ourselves.
If this is so - and even I as a Reformed Waldensian in the Calvin anniversary year can say that it is so - then we can close this 60th birthday of the Kirchentag full of hope!
AMEN

Provisional translation from the German

Your hand for ecumenism - WCC youth interns blog

The five WCC current youth interns helped run the stand in the market of possibilities at the Kirchentag. They brought creativity and vitality to the stand and we had young people queueing up to draw around their hands and put up their hands for ecumenism.
Emma, Katarina, Packiaraj, James and Mark have also started a blog which I hope they manage to keep up. I'm looking forwards to reading it and hearing more about their impressions of Kirchentag.

Stuffed or starved? A European obsession with chicken breasts wrecks the Cameroon market in locally produced food

All afternoon "stuffed or starved" was the focus of the Future Centre at the Kirchentag. I was interpreting for Cameroon rural activist and anti-corruption campaigner Bernard Njonga.
He explained how because of a perceived need to supply the growing urban popoulation with cheap food, the Cameroon government started importing frozen chicken pieces from the European Union. These chicken pieces are created as a by-product of chicken breast production. The frozen chicken was so cheap that it undercut the locally produced chicken, driving small sustainable farmers out of business.oon session
Hans Herren began the afternoon by giving a brilliant summary of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. He did that in just 11 minutes and given that even teh executive summary is 29 pages long that's quite something.
What was interesting in the various rounds of discussions that followed his presentation was how reluctant the representatives of the German farmers were to leave the present model of cheaper production at any price for the planet. Herren stated that in order to prevent people starving the enormous research that IAASTD had undertaken showed clearly that supporting women, small scale farmers, paying them to farm sustainably would bring food closer to those who really need it, take people out of starvation and also help manage the planets resources. He also showed how cheap food policies and the obsession with eating red meat leads to a muon footprint.
A fascinating afternoon. Not just food for thought but food for transformation.

Migration on the high seas

There was a demonstration at the event I was interpreting for yesterday against an organisation called Frontex. The outdoor stage in Bremen's harbour area had a fairly small seating area in front of it so the representative of the company had the placards facing him the whole time - and quite some heckling too. The panel discussion was on how migrants who try to come by sea are treated. Frontex are one of the the private firms that the EU uses to coordinate oversight of the patrolling and security of its external borders.

The panel began with a passionate introduction from Stefan Schmidt captain of the Cap Anamur which five years ago saved 37 Africans who were in the Mediterranean because the small vessel they were in had sunk. When he then landed his boat in Italy he and two other senior members of his crew were taken in for questioning and he found himself facing trial, a four year prison sentence and 400,000 euros fine for "aiding and abetting illegal migrants". Schmidt has now founded an association which does not take sides on the migration debate but tries to gather information about what is actually happening to migrants on the seas.
The main panel discussion included the German minister of the interior Wolfgang Schäuble and François Boko the former minister of the interior of Togo who had fled into exile when the political situation in his country became dangerous, with executions and killings.
Naïve that I am I had not realised that today even coordination of external state borders is outsourced, I imagine that the excuse from the EU is that this is a way of avoiding creating a Europe-wide body to do the work. One of the effects of course is that it diffuses responsibility for who is at fault when their are violations of refugees' or migrants' rights.

Jetzt geht es wirklich los! Today things really get started

So today things are really getting started with Bible studies and podium discussions and midday singing and much, much more. Our WCC stand is set up and ready for business in the Market of possibilites and today's Kirchentag visitors will still have last night's music and the beautiful candle light floating around the city of Bremen in their minds as they begin today.
I'm off to the Harbour area to interpret this morning and then back there this evening for the Bread for the World international reception. Hope also to get back to the WCC stand and the International Centre at some point. Meanwhile, apologies to regular readers who think I'm writing too much but I'm also trying to give some English updates abotu Kirchentag to folk who are a bit lost here.
Have a great day - Mensch wo bist du? Ich bin hier in Bremen!

Folded boats gently swim against the stream

As people streamed to the Bürgerweide for one of the Kirchentag's opening services some of the boats pictured here were being carried out from the service into the different parts of Bremen. Each carried by two people (a bit little like a pantomime horse) they moved as if they were bobbing on a sea of people and very gently making progress against the stream of people coming in the opposite direction. It was a powerful and beautiful image.
The special hymn which has been written for the Kirchentag "Mensch wo bist du?" also takes up the theme of the ship on the sea, knowing or not knowing where it's going. As we fold boats at the evening of encounters I shall think about small boats making gentle progress against the stream. More for my reflections on a spirituality of resistance - I always knew that origami was a deeply theological activity.