Sharing the Earth Charter at the German Church Congress
Inaugurated in 1949, the "Kirchentag" occurs every two years, and is the largest Protestant gathering in Germany. In the five day event that took place from June 6 to 10, almost one million people came to Cologne to share in discussions, lectures, prayers, concerts, dancing and singing. The Kirchentag can be described as a large, chaotic, but very cheerful festival of faith and reflection.
On the opening day of the Congress, I met Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and his assistant Eric Elbers in the densely crowded city of Cologne. That day alone, one hundred thousand people were in the streets of the historic old town to attend one of the numerous open air services, listen to live music that was played at almost every corner, or just stroll down the beautiful Rhine promenades.
In the evening, we prepared Awraham’s bible commentary that he would give the next morning. During the night, his speech was written and translated into German. After a rather short night and a quick breakfast, we tried to find our way to the fairground - the main location for the Congress.
When we finally made it to the main entrance of the large area of the Cologne fairground, it took us another fifteen minutes to get to the hall where Awraham was supposed to speak. An audience of around 50 people sat on their cardboard chairs to attend the lecture.
Awraham gave an interpretation of a passage of the New Testament, where Satan tries to lead Jesus into temptation (Mt 4, 1-11). Skilfully putting the biblical images in a contemporary context, Awraham drew a link to the global challenges of hunger and poverty, and interpreted the passage in the light of the Millennium Development Goals and the Earth Charter.
Taking the tempting forces described in the text as those inner forces that hinder us from doing the things we know we should, Awraham strongly appealed to the audience to overcome all obstacles to achieving the MDGs: “We will face moral bankruptcy if we do not meet the Millennium Development Goal of providing access to clean water to one billion people that currently don’t have access to drinking water.”
In the evening, Awraham took part in one of the main events of the Kirchentag: an open-air event that was organized to build a bridge between Cologne and Heiligendamm where the heads of state of the G-8 were just opening their meeting. Among the speakers were Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Tutu of South Africa, the founder of the globalization-critical movement Attac Susan George, Chico Whitaker Ferreira, co-founder of the World Social Forum, and Bishop Wolfgang Huber, President of the Evangelical Church of Germany.
Speaking against the backdrop of the majestic Cologne Cathedral, Awraham opened his moving speech by quoting the Earth Charter’s call to create a global partnership to care for Earth and one another. He then read parts of a statement on peace in the Middle East that he drafted with Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. The statement had been prepared for the main publication of the Kirchentag, a book in which religious leaders, Nobel Peace Laureates and Heads of State expressed their visions for a humane and just economic order that builds on the power of dignity instead of the power of financial capital.
In their statement, Awraham and Prince Hassan call for the creation of environments of trust and reconciliation in the Middle East, environments where Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs can share and jointly overcome their common experiences of pain, violent conflict and injustice that they endured for so many years.
Several times, Awraham was interrupted by the enthusiastic responses of the crowd.
“I would like to share with you my conviction that in three months from now, thousands of young Israelis and thousands of young Palestinians will join the peace rallies in Ramallah and Tel Aviv to express their commitment to put an end to all the violence!”
Awraham, who survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in Amsterdam, concluded by sharing his life story - a story of being rescued by a German-born woman who opened the door for a baby in a suit-case. “Looking at the millions and millions of children, women and men that are enduring hunger and poverty and that are looking at us in despair, I feel that we are holding the door in our hands. Will we be able to open the door and achieve the Millennium Development Goals to feed those who are in need?”
Touched by this moving testimony, the audience of six thousand thanked him with standing ovations and spontaneously began singing the Hebrew song of peace and reconciliation, “Shalom Aleichim.”
Listening to Awraham's words and witnessing the spontaneous gesture of respect and gratitude from the audience, many were moved to tears (including myself).