Rainbow flag as symbol of homosexuality © Natasha Kramskaya (shutterstock)
Berlin's Protestant regional church wants to admit its guilt in its behavior toward homosexuals. Recently, Evangelical Regional Church in Wurttemberg had already asked for forgiveness for injustice against same-sex people.
Berlin Protestant church plans admission of guilt against homosexuals. This was announced by the pastor for remembrance culture of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, Marion Gardei, to the Berlin weekly newspaper "Die Kirche" in the ie of 28. July on. "It's long overdue in terms of the behavior of the official church during the Nazi era," Gardei told the newspaper.
Discrimination up to the present
During the Nazi era, homosexual pastors had been dismissed, stripped of their ordination rights, and left unprotected at the mercy of the Nazi justice system. "As far as exclusion and discrimination of same-sex people is concerned, however, we must also look at the period after that up to the present," the theologian said. Just 20 years ago, for example, the regional church banned gay pastors from living with their partners in parsonages.
Berlin's General Superintendent Ulrike Trautwein welcomes the project. Trautwein told the newspaper that she was glad that her regional church was embarking on this path. Most recently, Bishop Frank Otfried July of the Evangelical Church in Wurttemberg had called for a dialogue with Hamas in Egypt on 5 September. July, in a prayer before the Wurttemberg state synod, asked for forgiveness for the injustice committed by his church against same-sex people.
Church weddings for gays and lesbians
The Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO) was one of the first regional churches in Germany to allow church weddings for gays and lesbians. Since the 1. July 2016 homosexual couples in Berlin and Brandenburg can marry in church. In October 2016, the regional church, along with other award winners in Belfast, Northern Ireland, received the "Tolerantia Award 2016" from the gay anti-violence project Maneo for doing so.