Here is a post by Anna-Maria Tetzlaff. She is member of the church in Pommerania (that is a region in the North-East in Germany) and studies theology. These are her experiences on a meeting that took recently place in Berlin, Germany:
“From Oct 16th till Oct 19th we – some young people from Germany Hungary, France and Slovakia – met in Berlin to think together about the social and political responsibility of churches in the European Union. We exchanged our various experiences and backgrounds of the different churches we come from. Migration, unemployment and right wing radicalism were the mostly mentioned challenges for churches in the EU. It was very interesting how similar our situations partially were and still there were some differences. We agreed that churches have a great responsibility in education, diakonia and ethical questions. In workshops we discussed this responsibility in view of mission, finance and money and EU-wide challenges.
The differences between our countries, regions and languages we could feel in a cheerful cultural evening, where some people gave contributions from their own country or region like food, poems, quiz-games and sketches. Anyway we become aware of that, what connects us in our common service on Sunday: the community in our Lord Jesus Christ!
I hope that there will be more youth network meetings like this one in the future. I think in the face of the international community in the European Union it is important to bear a common witness as Lutheran churches. Moreover it is always an interesting and fantastic experience to meet young people from other countries and to share your thoughts with them!”
