Ecumenical assembly for justice, peace and the integrity of creation in the GDR

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Logo of the public transport

The Ecumenical Assembly for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in the GDR was one of the first regional assemblies in Europe within the framework of the Council process , a common "learning path" of Christian churches to justice , peace and the integrity of creation . It took place in three plenary sessions between February 1988 and April 1989. There have been a number of Ecumenical Gatherings for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation around the world .

Assembly

The Ecumenical Assembly (ÖV) met with 146 delegates from 19 churches and ecclesiastical communities from February 12 to 15, 1988 in Dresden for the 1st General Assembly. There were also 27 consultants. This was followed by the 2nd General Assembly from October 8 to 11, 1988 in Magdeburg and the 3rd General Assembly from April 26 to 30, 1989, again in Dresden. The 3rd General Assembly adopted 12 result texts and other documents:

  1. Reversal to justice, peace and integrity of creation / theological foundation
  2. solidarity
    1. Living in solidarity - an answer to global structures of injustice
    2. Live in solidarity with foreigners
  3. More justice in the GDR - our task, our expectation
  4. The transition from a system of deterrence to a system of political peacekeeping
  5. Orientation and help with decision-making in questions of military service and pre-military training
  6. Aspects of Peace Education
  7. Becoming a Church of Peace
  8. In search of a new way of life in the endangered creation
  9. Serve people - save life
  10. Ecology and economy
  11. Energy for the future
  12. The value of information for environmental awareness and engagement

Among the other documents there is also a “Letter to the Children”, in which the concern of the public transport is explained in the introduction: “The earth on which we live is very threatened. We, the adults, are to blame for this. But some still noticed. That is why many people have met for the third time to think about what needs to be done to save the earth ... "

steps

1983: Heino Falcke , who later became the deputy chairman of the presidium of the ÖV, and the other representatives from the GDR churches brought to the VI. General assembly of the WCC ( World Council of Churches ) in Vancouver the proposal for the preparation of a peace council - following on from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Later a European Ecumenical Assembly and a World Assembly will be prepared.

1986: On February 13th, the commemoration day of the destruction of Dresden, the municipal ecumenical circle of Dresden asks the churches in the GDR territory to hold an ecumenical assembly for justice, peace and the integrity of creation (ÖV) before the ecumenical assemblies at European and world level to convene in the GDR.

1987: The Working Group of Christian Churches in the GDR (ACK) begins to prepare for the public transport and addresses the congregations with the appeal "A hope learns to walk" to participate with suggestions in the preparation of the public transport.

1988: Over 10,000 suggestions are received from the municipalities. Their content is arranged and processed by the 1st General Assembly. In order to perceive the current challenge, the delegates of the 1st General Assembly listen to 9 examples of “testimonies of concern” (current short reports on: Injustice both globally using the example of Nicaragua and Mozambique as well as locally in the GDR, arms, military service and military education problems, protection of the Unborn babies, uranium mining in the GDR, dying forests in the Ore Mountains). In the 7 months between the 1st and 2nd General Assembly, 13 content-focused groups work on draft texts that are revised by the 2nd General Assembly. 10,000 copies of the draft texts of the 2nd General Assembly were sent out in autumn 1988 and discussed in the parishes. In hearings, the working groups discussed the draft texts with experts from the secular field. By February 1989, the Dresden Secretariat had received around 1,400 statements, some of them very detailed, from the communities.

1989: During the 3rd assembly, 802 amendments from delegates and advisers were dealt with. The subject of "More justice in the GDR - our task, our expectation" (text 3) was particularly fierce. On April 30, 1989, the 3rd General Assembly adopted the 12 texts prepared in 13 working groups with the required two-thirds majority. Songs (“Come Lord, bless us that we do not part ...”), intercessions, day and night prayers, services accompanied all three plenary assemblies.

effect

“One of the forces that brought about the change in politics and society in autumn 1989 was the Ecumenical Assembly in Dresden and Magdeburg. Their topics were program: Justice, peace and the integrity of creation. ” As early as February 2, 1988, the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED feared that “ a politically hostile platform could be crafted ” and the Ministry for State Security (MfS) named it first draft texts “the most up-to-date, complex catalog of demands with regard to socio-political changes in the GDR.” Management bodies of various churches and ecclesiastical communities adopted the results of the ÖV as their own. Decisive for the after-effect of the public transport were the delegates, advisors and friends of the public transport, who acted as multipliers not only in the parishes but also in the secular political area. Examples are some prominent personalities who had worked in the ÖV and who played a decisive role in shaping the peaceful revolution in 1989 and the post-reunification period in a variety of ways: Christof Ziemer and Heino Falcke (chairman and deputy chairman of the ÖV presidium), Michael Beleites , Erika Drees , Karl-Heinz Ducke , Hans-Jürgen Fischbeck , Thomas Küttler , Markus Meckel , Rudi-Karl Pahnke , Sebastian Pflugbeil , Walter Romberg , Friedrich Schorlemmer , Richard Schröder . Many of them founded political action alliances and parties in September and October 1989 or shaped them in terms of their content: New Forum , Democratic Awakening , Democracy Now , Social Democratic Party in the GDR (SDP). Many took on political offices or members of parliament, some in the last GDR government and many later at the local, state or federal level or in the European Parliament. Engagement at round tables, in social, development and environmental networks and associations became important.

The subjects of the conciliar process found their way into state and church policy documents. For example, in its preamble to the CDU's positions on the present and future , the Eastern CDU formulated: Justice, peace and the integrity of creation are its political goals. In the preamble to the constitution of the Free State of Saxony (of May 27, 1992) it says: “... guided by the will to serve justice, peace and the preservation of creation, the people of the Free State of Saxony have thanks to the peaceful Revolution of October 1989 given this constitution. ”In Article 2 (Paragraph 6) of the Constitution of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (of July 5, 2008, Article 2 Paragraph 6) it was declared:“ It [the Evangelical Church in Central Germany] sets trusting God's promise for the preservation of creation and the shaping of life in the one world in justice and peace. "

Continue work

The results of the public transport in the GDR were continued at the European Ecumenical Assemblies in 1989 in Basel , 1997 in Graz and 2007 in Sibiu as well as the World Ecumenical Assembly on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation in 1990 in Seoul. In 1990, churches and ecclesiastical communities in Dresden founded the “Ecumenical Information Center for Justice, Peace, Safeguarding Creation and Domestic and Foreign Work”, or “Ecumenical Information Center” for short, in order to continue the conciliar process. There have been other meetings since the 1990s, for example in Erfurt in 1996 and in Mainz in 2014. The issues of justice, peace and the integrity of creation were rethought under new political conditions. It became clear that the continuation in the secular area is taking place above all with the global efforts for sustainability globally and locally ( Local Agenda 21 , Agenda 2030 ), in which the goals of ecology, economy and social affairs are linked.

In 2019, 27 theologians and civil rights activists from East and West Germany recalled that even 30 years after the Ecumenical Assemblies, promises for the future still have to be kept. With this in mind, they supported the appeal “Save the Peace Project Europe” by 74 organizations and institutions from 9 European countries on February 4, 2019 to the members of the European Parliament.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ecumenical assemblies
  2. ↑ Result texts on oikoumene.net
  3. ^ Result text three ( Memento from January 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf)
  4. ↑ Katharina Seifert: By turning back to turning. Ten years of the Ecumenical Assembly in the GDR - a balance sheet Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 1999. ISBN 3-7462-1306-1 , p. 7
  5. ↑ Christof Ziemer: The conciliar process in the colors of the GDR. Expertise for the Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag Dealing with the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany , quoted in: Heino Falcke: Where is freedom? To be a Christian in times of change. Kreuz-Verlag, Freiburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-7831-3408-7 , p. 94
  6. ^ Lothar de Maizière : Positions of the CDU on the present and future . In: New Time . November 25, 1989.
  7. ^ World Ecumenical Assembly in Seoul
  8. ↑ Ecumenical Information Center eV Dresden
  9. ^ Meeting in Erfurt 1996
  10. ↑ Meeting in Mainz 2014
  11. ↑ Almuth Berger , Annette Berger, Magdalene Bußmann , Volkmar Deile , Christoph Demke , Hans-Joachim Döring , Ludwig Drees, Heino Falcke , Hans-Jürgen Fischbeck , Ulrich Frey, Jochen Garstecki, Renate Höppner, Heiko Lietz , Norbert Mette , Hans-Jürgen Misselwitz , Ruth Misselwitz , Axel Noack , Elisabeth Raiser , Konrad Raiser , Gerhard Rein, Gudrun Rein, Frank Richter , Friedrich Schorlemmer , Elfriede Stauss, Christoph Stier , Heinz-Günter Stobbe , Andreas Zumach : A promise for the future that has yet to be kept. (pdf; 54 kB) The Ecumenical Assembly in the GDR in 1989 against the backdrop of global dangers in 2019. February 2019, accessed on April 9, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Save the Europe Peace Project. For peace. For human rights. For Europe. February 4, 2019, accessed April 9, 2020 .

literature

  • Action atonement / Pax Christi (ed.), Ecumenical Assembly for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, Dresden - Magdeburg - Dresden. A documentation , Berlin 1990
  • Katharina Kunter: Fulfilled Hopes and Broken Dreams. Protestant churches in Germany in the field of tension between democracy and socialism (1980–1993) , Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-525-55745-7
  • Katharina Seifert: By turning back to turning. Ten years of the “Ecumenical Assembly in the GDR” - a balance sheet. Benno-Verlag, Leipzig, ISBN 3-7462-1306-1
  • Katharina Seifert: Faith and Politics. The Ecumenical Assembly in the GDR 1988/89 . Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-7462-1362-2
  • Application of the delegates from the GDR to the 6th General Assembly of the WCC, Vancouver / Canada 1983, in: Theological Study Department at the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR (ed.), Konziliarer Prozess, Berlin / GDR 1985 (information and texts No. 14 ).
  • Christof Ziemer : The conciliar process in the colors of the GDR. The political classification and significance of the Ecumenical Assembly of Christians and Churches in the GDR for justice, peace and the preservation of creation , in: German Bundestag (ed.), Materials of the Enquete Commission “Working on the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany " , Volume VI / 2, pp. 1430-1635
  • Christian Sachse [Ed.]: "Coming of age to use freedom". Political Correspondence to the Ecumenical Assembly 1987-89; Münster 2004; ISBN 3-8258-7844-9

See also

Web links