Study week: The Kirchentag, Hanover 2005

Overview:
Despite holding a degree in German, I had not travelled to Germany since before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Quite a bit has changed there, but also in my own life - especially my involvement with the church.

I have had relatively little chance to make use of my German,(BA, 1st, distinction in spoken language, Birmingham 1985) other than on Iona, welcoming German guests now and then, more recently translating a few things, and this year, making very full use of it in the Sete Conference on Mission and Liturgy in February, where I was present both for the URC and for CWM Europe.


I found it interesting that at the meeting for European/world link people in London in the spring, the issue was raised of taking seriously language skills - especially European language skills - in URC staff/members.

Getting there
The bookings process, and indeed the whole culture of becoming involved in the Kirchentag movement is quite daunting at first. The programme book(let) runs to 600+ pages, and takes some de-coding. There is a phenomenal level of organisation, and, it appears, �old hands� like to show they know the ropes. One visit in, I would confirm, Kirchentag is a culture which can only be (something like) fully appreciated by immersion.

There remains the question of whether I could/should afford the time to be involved in the follow-up week for UK people on Iona in September.
 

The week:
I flew out of Glasgow on the morning of Tuesday 24th, and changing planes at Amsterdam Schipol, arrived in the afternoon, and was met by my host, Dieter Ley. a retired (very successful) engineer in the chocolate industry, with wide interests and a concern for young people in the church. His wife Christa arrived back from a meeting later in the evening. They talked for a long time. I was well looked after.
 

welcome from the passenger transport authority! 

Wednesday 25th :
I went into town to walk around and get the feel of the city 

On the way in, I met a fellow Iona Community Member, Rev David Osbourne, who is vicar in the village of the Glastonbury festival.  

Walked round the large artificial lake, Maschsee, had a look at some of the parks, noted how the Kirchentag was beginning to take over the city
 

with question-marks (made by schools etc) and wooden lighthouses in preparation for the opening events under the title � Lass Leuchten� = let there be light�/cf �lift up the light of your countenance�� Stages were being assembled,  

and I caught my only glimpse of the � Monument der Fragen� = monument of /to questions, a 20m high wooden installation, to be bedecked with the questions of participants. It was apparently built with the help of the fire brigade, and still has its own website. The question-marks and the questions were part of the attempt of the Kirchentag leadership to promote a lively and confident culture of questioning: to take away the fear of being wrong, so that we might hear what God is indeed saying to us.  

The environment was apparently also a major concern of the Kirchentag, and this was reflected on the omnipresent blue �Tuecher� (scarves/cloths) that seemed to be round every neck by the end of the week, some together with similar trophies from other Kirchentage or the international Jubilee/Schuldenerlass movement.  

The German churches also seem to be taking the WCC decade to end violence very seriously, to an extent I have not yet seen in any British church situation, though I was present at the Durham meeting at the end of the Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women.
 

The foreign guests were invited to a reception in the Convention Centre in the middle of the Messegelaende ( exhibition grounds, but that is too small a word for this city in itself!). I met other Iona members, some URC folk including Sheila Brain, and one or two people I had met in Budapest a few weeks before, but they didn�t seem to want to do much other than say hello. I also met an Indian CSI priest who is working with North German Churches, whom I had met in Sete.
 

Landesbischoefin Margot Kaessmann greets foreign guests 

German African Youth choir 

After musical items from a choir of German and visiting African young people, we were greeted by various people including Bishop Margot Kaessmann and the General Secretary of the Kirchentag, Friederike von Kirchbach, as well as the lively and progressive-minded Oberbuergermeister of Hannover. Divided into language-groups, we were given a few hints and reminded of the haven of the International Centre upstairs at the Messe.

The opening worship happened at several open-air stages in the city. I tried to get to the Opernplatz, but could not make it there due to the tide of good-natured humanity (50 000+ were there already). The initial opening worship/performance, involving graffiti on top of the Ten Commandments, emphasising the theme of a culture of questions was duplicated at the other stages, and I got close enough to the Steintor stage to see this and hear the sermon,.
 

Buehne am Steintor: opening service 

signing interpreter 

Abend der Begegnung : church full :what we all long to see! 

Abend der Begegnung: lighthouses with Biblical texts 

Abend der Begegnung 

Abend der Begegnung 

eventually moving on through a stone-dead red light district to the �Neues Rathaus� (huge Victorian-vintage town hall) where the Opernplatz service was being relayed live on a huge screen, with signing translation. A visiting RC bishop made some moderately radical ecumenical comments, which were warmly welcomed.

400 000 people gradually crammed into the city, and every church organisation, it seemed, in Germany, had set up a stall to give out information and/or sell refreshments. A sausage-stall from the German Chernobyl solidarity group, for instance. This was the � Encounter Evening � = Abend der Begegnung 

a bad night for the red light! 

Lebnizufer, Wednesday night 

Lebnizufer, Wednesday night