Eleven Churches will for the first time sign a formal declaration on the reciprocal recognition of Baptism at a ceremony in Magdeburg in Germany on 29 April. The ratification of the document will take place during an ecumenical celebration in Magdeburg Cathedral, in the presence of the highest representatives of the 11 German Churches: they will include the President of the Council of the German Evangelical Church (EKD), Bishop Wolfgang Huber, the President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, and the bishop of the Evangelical Church of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony, Bishop Axel Noack, who is hosting the event. The sermon will be preached by the retired bishop Walter Klaiber of the Methodist Evangelical Church. The ratification of the baptism accord in Germany is the result of an effort lasting over three decades, involving contacts and agreements at the regional level between the Churches forming part of the EKD and the Catholic dioceses: the accord on the reciprocal recognition of Baptism at the level of the EKD and the German Bishops’ Conference is however something new and represents a practical application of the ecumenical initiative of Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, launched in 2002 precisely with the aim of pursuing common recognition of Baptism. The Churches that signed the document are as follows: Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Community of work of the Anglican communities in Germany, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Reformed Evangelical Church of Lower Saxony, Community of the Moravian Brothers, German Evangelical Church, Methodist Evangelical Church, Catholic Episcopate of Old Catholics in Germany, German Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Lutheran Evangelical Church. On behalf of the Churches belonging to the Community of work of the Christian Churches (ACK), which will not sign the document, the Mennonite pastor Werner Funck will attend the celebration and bring a message of greeting. The failure of some Churches to support the Declaration is motivated by the theological value attributed to the Baptism of children.
