Mutual sponsorship at a baptism

adminonJanuary 10, 2022January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Adult baptism © KNA

Old Catholics and Lutherans in Germany take a step toward each other. The Synod of the Diocese of Old Catholics in Germany agreed to the mutual recognition of confirmation and confirmation. Even the baptism is approaching.

Already in November, the synod of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (VELKD) had approved the mutual recognition.

The text of the Mainz agreement states: "Lutherans and Old Catholics see in confirmation a personal confession of the baptized, a life-historically significant act of blessing and an actualization of the entire baptismal event as a life-long present reality."With this agreement, it is also possible for Old Catholics and Lutherans to be each other's godparent at a baptism.

Since Friday, the synod has also been discussing a contemporary understanding of marriage and how to deal with same-sex partnerships. One of the ies discussed was whether the blessing of same-sex partnerships, which has been practiced for some years now, could be equated with marriage – also in sacramental terms. In a discussion process that goes beyond the synod, the Old Catholic Church wants to find its position here.

Against arms trade

The church parliament unanimously decided that the diocese should join the action alliance "Action Outcry – Stop the Arms Trade". Ecumenism was not neglected either. The Catholic diocesan administrator of Mainz, Dietmar Giebelmann, visited the synod, as did the church president of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, Volker Jung, and representatives of the Anglican Church.

The Old Catholics had separated from the Catholic Church after the First Vatican Council (1869/70) in a dispute over magisterial infallibility and the pope's primacy of jurisdiction.

Throughout Europe today there are about 75.000 Old Catholics united in the Union of Utrecht. The diocese of the Old Catholic Church in Germany includes about 15.000 Christians with 50 full-time parish priests. Since 1996, the church in Germany has also ordained women priests. The church rejects compulsory celibacy. Since 1985, there has been an agreement with the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on a reciprocal invitation to participate in evening mass and the celebration of the Eucharist.

Syria memorial made of 740 teddy bears © Christian Ditsch (epd)

Seven years of violence in Syria and no peace in sight: one of the few aid convoys arrived in embattled Eastern Ghuta on Thursday, but the delivery is not enough for all residents. Meanwhile, in Berlin, teddy bears were making news.

In Syria, a Red Cross aid convoy has delivered food to the town of Duma in the besieged rebel area of Eastern Ghuta. The food rations are intended for 26.100 people will last for a month, as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Thursday in Geneva. United Nations commission of inquiry denounced sexual violence in Syria conflict.

ICRC President Peter Maurer was also involved in the convoy of 25 trucks during his visit to Syria. Nearly 400 people live in Eastern Ghuta.000 people trapped for weeks. In recent weeks, only isolated convoys reached Eastern Ghuta due to the fighting, and not all trucks with humanitarian goods could be unloaded.

Sexual assault

Maurer called for a "peace agreement" on the seventh anniversary of the start of the conflict in Syria on 15. March an end to violence. The suffering of people should not be prolonged, said Maurer. In addition to the ICRC, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the World Food Program also participated in the delivery to Duma. A Red Cross spokeswoman said another convoy of medical supplies could leave for Eastern Ghuta in the coming days.

Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad's troops besiege and shell area with Russian help. From eastern Ghuta, insurgents fire on nearby capital Damascus. Violence continues despite UN Security Council call for ceasefire.

The UN's Syria Commission condemned sexual violence in the conflict as deeply repugnant. Thousands of women and girls, as well as men and boys, have been victims of rape and other sexual assaults since 2011, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in Geneva.

Assad regime troops, rebel groups and terror militias such as the "Islamic State" (IS) have been guilty of sexual violence, report says. The acts could be considered "crimes against humanity".

The sexual violence is said to create fear among the victims and their relatives. Violence is also used to humiliate and punish, he said. Members of Assad units raped prisoners in the camps and during interrogations. IS militias would have used it to enforce their "draconian" social order.

Teddy Bear Action in Berlin

With a teddy bear campaign, the aid organization World Vision Germany has drawn attention to the suffering of children in Syria.

In the process, a memorial made of 740 teddy bears was erected by schoolchildren at Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt on Thursday. More than 2.5 million Syrian children have been displaced since the war began, it said. 740.000 of them are of school age but are unable to attend classes. At the memorial, therefore, each teddy stands for 1.000 school-age children on the run. The bears will then be distributed to refugee children in Berlin and Jordan.

In Syria, Assad troops, opposition rebels and terrorist groups are fighting each other. In addition to Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia are on Assad's side. Turkey is taking military action in the Afrin region against Kurdish militias receiving U.S. aid. The conflict began when the Assad regime responded with violence to peaceful protests. More than 400.000 people have been killed, more than twelve million are on the run.

St. Pauli is an exceptional world: between the amusement district, the Schanzenviertel and the fish market, the small parish with its 200-year-old st. Pauli Church in the middle of Hamburg. The place of worship is a contact point for people of all religions.

The church is like an island for the people in the community, is how Pastor Siegard Wilm describes the 200-year-old red-brick house of worship in St. Pauli. In the recent past, this became particularly clear when the "Welcome to Hell Demo" escalated between demonstrators and police near the church during the G-20 summit in early July. The church opened its doors and both police officers and demonstrators found refuge on the premises. "Here lay severely injured. There was tear gas everywhere in the churchyard and the main job was to calm everyone down," says the sexton Philippe Koster.

Welcome to Heaven

The church's motto was more peaceful during the G-20 summit. A large banner still stretches between the old trees on the church grounds: "Welcome to Heaven". "We couldn't have just closed down while the whole world was taking to the streets outside the door," says Pastor Siegard Wilm. "To have this peace under these beautiful ancient trees on the church grounds, that was great. But also permanently disturbed by clashes right on our doorstep and billowing clouds of CS gas. The violence was terrible and very frightening."

The political reappraisal of the G-20 riots is still underway, while calm has long since returned to the streets. St. Pauli, however, remains a neighborhood visited by up to 20 million tourists a year, but where only 21.000 people live there. "We are like islanders," Pastor Siegard Wilm describes the situation. The St. Pauli Kirche is a very important place not only for parishioners, but also for non-religious people or people of other religions. "You trust the church and just feel at home there. We are within this exceptional world St. Pauli himself an exceptional world."

Belonging together in diversity

Especially in the church choir, it becomes clear that very different social classes are represented in the congregation, observes church organist Tina Schneeweib. "Everything collides, but it still works out really well. That's what I like about St. Pauli also so great. Everyone can come, no matter whether he is a doctor, a lawyer, an artist or a Hartz IV recipient." The concept is to value each other and to belong together in diversity, says Pastor Wilm. Catholics also come to the services and are welcomed, which Wilm sees as an important sign within ecumenism that Christians belong together.

"More people live here today than 10 years ago," says the pastor. This is also reflected in the congregation with its 4700 members. Nevertheless, she says, even in St. Pauli many church outreach. Nevertheless, the Protestant pastor does not see the future in black: "The church is still needed. After all, it all breaks down into micro-groups and sentiments that few people can bind together. And the church can actually still bind a lot of people and also from very different milieus: We bring people together who would not normally meet in everyday life."

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