WCC Youth Interns

The Kirchentag, the day of the church, the day when thousands of people come together to pray, study the bible, reflect, sing, meet people from all over, share ideas and experiences. It is amazing how many young people were at Bremen full of enthusiasm about the event, offering voluntarily their services. I couldn’t believe that in our days when most people mind their own business, a great amount of volunteers could be gathered to help with the organization of such a huge event! And I cannot really think of a similar event around the world, or of a country that could host and organize it in a more sufficient way. Well done Youth of Germany! Well done Churches of Germany!

Some of the most remarkable things of the Kirchentag were the bible studies held in big auditoriums with simultaneous translation into English language. ‘Mensch, wo bist du?’(‘Mortal, where are you?’). This was the theme of the whole program that was developed the first day in the different bible studies. The famous text of Genesis where God seeks Adam, a human being like us all, tells a story of a relationship that seems so familiar, describing who God is and who human beings are.

Bishop Wolfgang Huber, Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, expanded on the narrative from the perspective of freedom. Adam and Eve were placed in Eden and were given by God permission to live and work on the earth that was entrusted to them, and also instruction not to eat of the fruit of the tree that was in the middle of the garden nor touch it, or they would die. In other words, they were placed in the area of freedom and were asked to choose and trust.  But isn’t that what we are continually asked to do throughout our lives? We live in freedom, and we are asked to make choices and trust God. And there is always the temptation of evil coming from within God’s creation, as in the story of ‘The knowledge of good and evil’.

So, the question is how we use our freedom without running away from our problems, and whether we have the will to determine our lives and to restrict power in all areas of human life (science, politics, finance). This is real freedom. When we can no longer say ‘I have no alternative’, because we realize that we do not need to eat from every tree of the garden! And as mortals we taste real freedom when we are able to resist temptation not to be ‘just like God’, but be ‘the same as God’.

What I liked about this bible study was the fact that the biblical text was emphasized as a story about the relationship with God and not a story about morals. The other point I particularly found interesting is the stress of the fact that the Bible does not present the original sin as something we inherited, and also that to be a Christian does not mean to have a life without pleasure. I think it was really helpful to be reminded that everything joyful is not necessarily sinful because Adam and Eve fell from grace! As Christians we often teach and preach about several virtues, but we sometimes forget to talk about a life of joy and happiness…

Working at the WCC stand with Sabine, Jane, Heather and the other interns was F U N! All these people from all over the world came to ask questions about the WCC’s work, shared experiences, took pictures, bought ecumenical T-shirts! But also visiting the stands of churches and organizations was a unique experience. Everyone was so friendly and willing to respond to all our questions. I much enjoyed the visit to the United and Uniting Church stand, where Mark and I had the opportunity to find out more about its history, structure and interesting publications on ecclesiology, as well as the visit to the Iona Community Stand. How wonderful people.

*Aikaterina Pekridou is a WCC intern from Greece working with Faith and Order .

Whether for a first timer like me or for those who have been there before, it does not take long to confirm what one might have already heard about Kitchentag. It is a big event. As Packiaraj observed in one of our discussions about it, perhaps it is one of the biggest Ecumenical gatherings in Europe if not in the world. Like the first day of the event, masses of people streamed into the main venue on day three. Every day was packed with a series of activities and the second last day of Kitchentag was no different. From the morning bible studies in different languages and translations, to workshops, presentations, Ecumenical displays of artifacts, books and souvenirs, multiple options prevailed.

Emma, Aikaterina, Mark and I attended the Saturday morning bible study. Prof. Fulbert Steffensky, a religious educator led the bible study from the book of Genesis 16:1-16. The text is the story of Abram and Sarai before they became Abraham and Sarah respectively. Hagar, the Egyptian slave girl and Ishmael her son are also main characters in the story. He related the historic and biblical story to our modern life today. Like Sarai, who had no child and considered a shame, up to date, in some places of the world women who have no children either by choice or bareness are humiliated and/or stigmatized. The Hagars of today may be domestic workers who may be looked down upon, mistreated or abused by their employers. He reminded the hundreds of listeners to focus on the last, the weak and least in society. Like Hagar, who was visited and blessed by the Angel of the Lord, God hears our distresses and blesses us. 

On the same note, he emphasized on a rarely told point in that story. That God blessed both Isaac – Abraham and Sarah’s son and also blessed Ishmael, Hagar’s son. “The angel of the Lord also said to her, `I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.׳ … `Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction….” (NRSV) 

He likened these two paradoxical blessings to tolerance, dialogue and understanding of each other and one another regardless of our faith or religious affiliations. This is one of the significant ways of overcoming divisions and barriers that keep humans apart. Through dialogue and listening to one another, unity would be found and through unity God is glorified.

On the same day, we successfully distributed all the T-shirts. They had a message to overcome violence of guns and nuclear weapons in the world. One of them read; “Say no to Guns Stop Killing” while the other was; “Abolish Nuclear Weapons Protect Creation.” All of us (interns and staff) gathered at 4 p.m. to close the stand. It was a good exercise packing W.C.C burners, books, pens, bags and all W.C.C items that were on sale or being displayed. Our day was crowned by both interns and staff getting together for a drink in one of the restaurants at the busy Bremen Central Train Station –Hauptbahnhof. It may have been our last day of Kitchentag 2009 in Bremen but it was a chronological note, a reminder of time well spent in Bremen and in deed in our life as World Council of Churches’  interns 2009/10.

*Author:James Macharia -WCC Living Letters and Inter-Religious Relations’ Intern.

In English, this translates roughly to “Hands up for ecumenism”. That was the invitation we made to encourage young people to visit the WCC stall at Kirchentag – and to our delight (and possibly surprise) it worked.

It was a simple idea: invite people to come and sit at the stall, trace around their hand with a coloured marker, and then write their name and (if they wanted to) a message about ecumenism within their handprint. Not only was it a great opportunity to chat to some young people as they worked on their print, but we ended up with a lovely colourful wall of handprints and messages (have a look at the pictures). Word travelled fast about our activity and people actually came to the stall especially to take part in it because they’d heard about it from their friends. People wrote some thoughtful messages about ecumenism and it was really nice to see that this was something that could people (young and old) enthused.

At times I felt quite overwhelmed by Kirchentag: the crowds were enormous, and the German programme for the week was like a mini-novel in size. But once I adjusted, the atmosphere was wonderful. I decided early on not to try to get to every single event, but to pick a few that sounded interesting and focus on those. The talk by Father Richard Rohr which Mark has described was definitely the highlight. I also gave myself the challenge of attending some events in German (for example, a session on feminist spirituality). This was an interesting experience – while I was able to make out what was being said sentence by sentence, I wasn’t really able to come to grips with the overall theme, or make out the key messages. This was a shame, but I’m glad I gave it a shot, and there were more than enough English language offerings on the programme, plus translation and interpretation services. I’m still in awe of the organization and planning that went into this enormous event!

Jane Stranz, coordinator of the language service at the WCC and an all round linguistic genius, also attended Kirchentag, and has a great blog where you can read about her impressions and experiences: http://stranzblog.blogspot.com/.

We ended our stint at the stall with some well-earned back and neck massages which also seemed to attract people’s attention. Note to the WCC 2010 Kirchentag committee – consider this as a promotional tool …

*Author: Emma Halgren is a WCC intern serving in the Communications team.

After a long overnight train from Geneva to Bremen we arrived at our accomodation weary but excited. I attach an element of elasticity to the meaning of the word “accomodation” as we five interns are sharing a school classroom floor with eleven other people. I have compared it less favourably to my (hollywood) impressions of what it is like in a military field hospital: Lots of bodies strewn around the room accompanied by an unpleasant stench akin to some sort of livery.

So earplugs were bought and the tiredness is an issue foreveryone in attendance so we are  stoically, and rather heroically, getting to grips with the Kirchentag.

My shift on the WCC stand consited mainly of selling Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) T-shirts to German people using a mixture of shouting Enlish words loudly in a broad Scottish accent and some sort of universal mime/sign language technique. It appeared to be quite succesful as we sold alot.

Sabine (a WCC colleague of ours) wrote something in German on the back of my DOV t-shirt which made the middle-aged German ladies laugh and made the teenagers look at me as if I was some sort of alien. I’m still not entirely sure what it says however it seems to have the same effect as my distinctive brand of humour in English so hey ho.

Other than the WCC stall, I have been to a few events which have all been very interesting. The bible studies (all in German but with excellent translation) every morning have been a great way to start our days. There have been literally thousands of people at each one which is very different to what I’m used to back in my church in Edinburgh. Normally if we get one person under 60 and some chocolate digestives (rather than plain old Rich Tea) it is considered a stunning success.

Emma James and I went to a particularly inspiring session entitled Man Where are You led by an American fellow called Richard Rohr. It was about men’s spirituality in which Father Rohr expounded ideas about the psychology of men in relation to spirituality. He talked alot about men’s initiation ceremonies helping us to move from our first phase of life (survival-dance) into our second (sacred-dance).

After briefly flirting with the idea that the “dancing” was to be taken literally I banished the Wise Native American-Michael Jackson character from my imagination and got back into the lecture.

From his research Father Rohr has discovered that girls don’t need to be told when they have become women but we boys do need to be told when we have become men. James and I looked confused at this point and Emma sat with a glowing wisdom befitting of someone who was certain of her gender-based social status. 

I’m not entirely sure if I’m doing the survival boogie or the sacred one. Maybe I’ll ask one of the millions of friendly/stressed out cub-scouts who are everpresent at the Kirchentag. They seem to know where all the venues are and which tram to get so one just never knows.

Anyway, that is quite enough rambling from me for one day.

*Author: Mark Taylor is an intern with WCC serving in Youth and Ecumenism in the 21st Century.