The Synod of the Evangelical Churches” “

The ninth Synod of the Evangelical Churches of Germany is underway at Amberg, in Bavaria. The main theme that the 120 members of this kind of “church parliament” (meeting from Sunday 4th to Friday 9th November) are discussing this year is: “Forming the global economy in a responsible manner”. Other issues on the agenda are the ethics of peace, ecumenism and naturally the problem of the struggle against international terrorism. The Synod, highest decision-making organ of the Protestant churches in Germany, presided over by the jurist Jürgen Schmude since 1985, represents approximately 27 million evangelical Christians subdivided into 24 regional Lutheran and Reformed churches. Of the 120 members each appointed for six years, 100 are chosen in the churches that compose the community and 20 in the Council of the evangelical churches, a restricted body that has the task of representing the churches abroad; it is chaired by Manfred Kock. The tasks of the Synod, which is held annually, apart from the passing of provisions that concern the member churches, also include the debate on internal, ecumenical and social policy problems and decisions regarding the budget of the EKD (Evangelical Church in Germany). Many guests have been invited to this year’s Synod. They include a representative of the German Episcopal Conference, the bishop of Regensburg, Manfred Müller, representatives of the world ecumenical leagues and of the EKD’s partner churches, as well as exponents of the government, such as the Minister of Justice, Herta Däubler-Gmelin. Relations with Moslems. The opening address, given by Manfred Kock, had as its theme: “Jesus Christ. The sole word of God”. Kock underlined the “Christian self-awareness that needs to be developed in relations with Moslems”, hitherto little in evidence. In Kock’s view, “what Christ means for us” needs to be expressed in relations with Islam because “we fear interreligious dialogue not because we speak too much, but because we speak too little of Christ”. In dialogue with Moslems “on the public dimension of the faith”, Christians in Kock’s view ought never to forget “the principles of our constitution”. In conducting such dialogue we must privilege – he said – relations with groups of Moslems who “explicitly distance themselves from terrorism” and bring home to them that true fidelity to Islam can be reconciled with “the unconditional recognition of our fundamental law”. What is decisive, in the view of the president of the EKD, is that we should succeed “in mobilizing the forces of peace in the religious and lay sectors of society because only thus can fanaticism be deprived of its life-blood”. The global economy. The difficult balance between market economy and social justice was the central issue addressed in subsequent meetings at the Synod, which gave the overall title to the event: “Forming the global economy in a responsible manner”. In the basic report Hans-Helmut Kotz, president of the Central Bank in Hanover, explained that “globalization presents at once opportunities and risks” and requires both a stronger intervention and a “responsible approach”. Gerhard Rau, theologian at the University of Heidelberg, reproposed “the concept of social market economy”. In Rau’s view “the social element is expressed, at the global level, both in the fight against poverty and in the promotion of equitable structures, that may strengthen the weakest”. The theologian concluded that “the social aspect cannot only be cultivated for domestic consumption, and only the market aspect exported abroad”. Patrizia Collesi