wfn.org | German United Methodists celebrate 150 years of history

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 25, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-71B{488}

By United Methodist News Service*

Theologians briefly became jazz musicians as German United Methodists
celebrated 150 years of history during an Oct. 17-20 meeting in Munich.

About 150 people, including 94 voting delegates, attended the Central
Conference of the United Methodist Church in Germany, which occurs once
every four years. Besides discussing issues of church structure and programs
and joining together in worship, participants were given an entertaining
review of church history.

Faculty from the denomination's theological seminary in Reutlingen provided
jazz music for the evening, a special cabaret show was presented, and three
active and retired bishops from the former East and West Germany shared
their experiences from the past 40 years. The evening ended with the serving
of fresh Bavarian pretzels and beverages.

The Methodist movement in Germany began in 1850, when the Evangelical
Association - a predecessor of the Evangelical United Brethren Church --
sent its first missionary, Johann Conrad Link, from North America to
Germany. That same year, the first quarterly conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church took place in northern Germany. In 1968, the two
denominations merged to form the United Methodist Church.

Today, the German church has four annual (regional) conferences - North
Germany, East Germany, Southwest Germany and South Germany - for a total of
64,000 members in 593 congregations. Bishop Walter Klaiber was elected in
1996 to an eight-year term.

In his episcopal address to the conference, Klaiber challenged the church to
a new and more intensive encounter with Christ. He also called for more
attention to the Bible and a strengthening of the church's relationship with
the younger generation, including the use of regular youth worship services
on a regional basis.

Klaiber rejoiced in the denomination's ecumenical cooperation, particularly
with the Evangelical Alliance in Germany. Ecumenical leaders bringing
greetings to the conference included Prelate Lothar Waldmueller, Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Munich-Freising; Ivo Huber, Bavarian Lutheran
Provincial Church; the Rev. Karl Wengeroth, Ecumenical Association of
Munich; and the Rev. Kim Struebind, a Baptist pastor whose congregation uses
the building where the delegates met.

In other business, the German Central Conference delegates:

·	Acknowledged the many local, regional and national task forces for
dialogue, encounter and worship with Roman Catholics and expressed
disappointment over the Vatican's recent "Dominus Iesus" document.
·	Sent a letter to all German ministers of the interior, asking for a
"quick, pragmatic and humane solution for those refugees still in our
country," rather than forced expulsions.
·	Accepted a draft of a new hymnal, due to be published in 2002.
·	Tabled, for now, a proposal to created a single annual conference in
Germany but urged closer cooperation among the current four annual
conferences.
·	Heard from United Methodist Bishop Ruediger Minor, a German based in
Moscow, about the denomination's work in Russia.

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*Ingo Stauch and the Rev. Matthias Walter provided information for this
story, and the Rev. James Dwyer of Peace United Methodist Church in Munich
handled translation.

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United Methodist News Service
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