Ecumenical Church Congress 2021

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Invitation to the 3rd Ecumenical Church Congress in Frankfurt: The President of the Diocesan Assembly of the Diocese of Limburg, Ingeborg Schilai (right), the then President of the German Evangelical Church Congress, Christina Aus der Au and ZdK President Thomas Sternberg (2016)

The Ecumenical Kirchentag 2021 , which is to take place in Frankfurt am Main from May 13-16, 2021 , is the third ecumenical Kirchentag . The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau and the Diocese of Limburg were invited to attend at the beginning of 2018 . Both founded a joint steering group in April 2018. At that time, the organizers expected over 100,000 participants.

On December 17th, 2020 the decision was made that the ecumenical church convention would be shortened by one day (May 12th) and without participants traveling to Frankfurt, but instead - apart from a few events - digitally.

planning

In November 2011, the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN) issued an invitation to the German Evangelical Church Congress (DEKT), with which it agreed to host this major event in 2021. So far, four Protestant Church Days have taken place in Frankfurt: 1956, 1975 , 1987 and 2001. In 2012 the regional church began to set up earmarked reserves for this event. If the diocese of Limburg were to issue an invitation, the EKHN was also prepared to support an ecumenical church convention in Frankfurt instead of an evangelical church convention. After the Church President of the EKHN, Volker Jung , and the Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing had invited, in November 2016 both the Presidium of the DEKT and the Central Committee of German Catholics decided in favor of Frankfurt as the location of the third Ecumenical Church Congress.

At the closing event of the 101st Katholikentag in Münster on May 13, 2018, Ulrike Scherf, the deputy church president of the EKHN, and Bishop Bätzing officially invited the participants to the Ecumenical Kirchentag 2021 in Frankfurt.

On September 26, 2018 was in Romer , the association "3. Ecumenical Kirchentag Frankfurt 2021 e. V. ”, which is responsible for the legal, financial and organizational preparation of the Kirchentag.

The Joint Presidium, which is responsible for planning the content of the Ecumenical Church Congress, met for the first time on December 7, 2018. The Presidium consists of 43 people who were sent by the German Evangelical Church Congress , the Central Committee of German Catholics , the host churches and the Working Group of Christian Churches (ACK). The Evangelical President is Bettina Limperg , the Catholic President is Thomas Sternberg .

At the Evangelical Church Congress 2019 in Dortmund , EKHN and the Diocese of Limburg presented themselves with a joint program in the city center. In addition, the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck and the dioceses of Mainz and Fulda, to which the Evangelical and Catholic communities of several Frankfurt districts incorporated in the 1970s belong, as well as the ACK Hessen / Rheinhessen are involved in the preparations.

In mid-2019, the office of the 3rd Ecumenical Church Congress was set up in Frankfurt, where the organizational preparations are coordinated and carried out.

On September 22nd, 2020 it was announced that the 3rd Ecumenical Church Congress would take place according to a hygiene concept corresponding to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic . The program was adapted to the changed framework conditions.

On December 16, 2020, the Presidium decided to shorten the Kirchentag by one day and to forego mass events entirely. The framework is provided by services on Ascension Day and on Sunday; a concentrated and fully digital program is planned for Saturday. On Saturday evening denominational, "ecumenically sensitive" church services are to be celebrated.

subjects

President Limperg and President Sternberg announced the motto of the Kirchentag on October 26, 2019: “Look” ( Mk 6.38  EU ).

The program of the Kirchentag will be divided into four subject areas:

  1. Faith, Spirituality, Church
  2. Living spaces, living environments, coexistence
  3. Creation, peace, world community
  4. Economy, power, responsibility

The application period for thematic program contributions ran until April 30, 2020. For the various other areas of the program, the application phase sometimes runs until November 15. The office of the Kirchentag expects around 2000 applications.

financing

Criticism of the financing of the Kirchentag in public space

On March 22, 2018, the Frankfurt city council approved a cash grant of 3.9 million euros and free goods and services with a value of up to one million euros. Representatives of the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists described the subsidy as a violation of regulations on ideological neutrality of the state , which also apply to municipalities. The spokesman for the Limburg diocese welcomed the financial support of the Kirchentag by the city of Frankfurt and the state of Hesse. This is not a privilege for the churches, but also happens at other major events such as football games, sporting events or cultural festivals.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Press report 2018. In: Website of the city of Frankfurt am Main. January 26, 2018, accessed March 9, 2019 .
  2. ^ German Catholic Day, Ecumenical Church Day, Frankfurt. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b The Ecumenical Church Congress is breaking new ground. Concentrated, decentralized, digital: the ecumenical event is being rethought for 2021. ÖKT press release of December 17, 2020.
  4. ↑ Shaping the world. Presidium of the 3rd Ecumenical Church Congress has been constituted. In: 3rd Ecumenical Church Congress. December 10, 2018, accessed December 29, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Florentine Fritzen: Under Corona conditions: Kirchentag is planning with 30,000 visitors . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 29, 2020]).
  6. ↑ The motto of the Ecumenical Kirchentag 2021 is clear: “look”. In: oekt.de. October 26, 2019, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Millions in aid for the Ecumenical Church Congress of the city. In: Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. January 26, 2018, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Red .: Frankfurt am Main pays 4.9 million euros for the Kirchentag - those with no religious affiliation in return for a grant for the Frankfurt Kirchentag. In: hpd.de. Humanistic Press Service , March 5, 2018, accessed March 4, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Red .: Dispute over the financing of the Christian meeting. domradio.de, March 6, 2018, accessed on March 4, 2019 .