Tales from Germany

by Anli Serfontein Berlin  - Church representatives at the traditional Ecumenical Reception during the 68th Berlinale International Film festival on 18 February 2018 dealt with the profound consequences of digitization. "In the course of digitization, cinema has considerably expanded its possibilities of perfecting the images and creating an immersive experience for the viewer," said the chairman of the Publishers Commission of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Dr. Gebhard Fürst (Rottenburg-Stuttgart), said in his greetings at the reception. “There is no substitute for the shared experience in the magical darkness of the movie theater,” he added. On the other hand, there is a tendency in the "picture industry" for ever more perfectly designed pictures. Through digital editing, the image is increasingly removing itself from reality. "The images triumph over reality," Bishop Fürst said. The Rev. Johann Hinrich Claussen, the Cultura...

(c) Anli Serfontein 2010 - Nikolaus Schneider in Trier By Anli Serfontein Trier , Germany, 23 November (ENInews)--A European form of Islam needs to develop before a meaningful interfaith dialogue can take place on the continent, the new leader of Germany's 24 million Protestants has said. "We are only at the beginning of a serious inter-religious discussion on a theologically high level and that is because there are problems with finding counterparts," the Rev. Nikolaus Schneider told ENInews in a 17 November interview in Trier. "The imams who come from Turkey to Germany can hardly speak German and that means that we need to train imams in Germany at our universities," said Schneider, who was elected the new chairperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on 9 November during a meeting of its governing synod in Hanover. He had been the EKD's acting leader since February, when his predecessor, the Rev. Margot Kässmann, stood down ...

A story that continues to rock the Protestant Churches in Germany and that I did for Ecumenical News International in Geneva. T rier, Germany, 24 February (ENI)-- Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders have expressed their regret about the resignation of Bishop Margot Kässmann, the first woman to lead 24 million German Protestants, who belong to the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). At a 24 February press conference in Hanover, where she was resident bishop, Kässmann said she was resigning from her leadership positions, only days after she was stopped for a drink-driving offence. When she made her announcement she was flanked by her four grown-up daughters. Kässmann said she had given up her posts as a bishop and as head of the EKD but would continue as a pastor. One commentator said the resignation would hurt the EKD more than it would help it because of a shortage of well-known leaders in the church grouping. Still, one cleric from a theologically conservative gr...