wfn.org | Romania's Christian Women Call for Reconciliation

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Churches "Challenged to be Reconciled"

SIBIU, Romania/GENEVA, 11 March 2002 (LWI) - For Rev. Elfriede
Doerr "writing a sketch of our history together," was the greatest
challenge in planning the worship service for the 1 March 2002
World Day of Prayer. A pastor of the Evangelical Church of the
Augsburg Confession in Romania, Doerr described Romanian women's
preparation for the global event.

Women representing different confessions, ethnic groups and
regions of the country, met and began by writing individual drafts
of the historical sketch. They then superimposed their drafts, one
on top of the other, like layers of foil. "Then the real work
started, the debating, the discussion-our successful little
exercise in reconciliation," said Doerr, who comes from. Sibiu in
Transylvania, northwest Romania. She described the encounter as an
"outstanding" event since Romanians today are generally searching
for a new identity.

According to this year's World Day of Prayer theme, all of 22
million Romanians are offered "The Challenge of Reconciliation."
Their political heritage weighs heavily on them, and the much
predicted leap into a market economy after the political changes
of the early 90s did not succeed. Twelve years after communist
dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu was put to death, a third of Romania's
population still lives below the poverty line.

The effects of the crumbling social welfare system are
particularly felt by the elderly, ill, disabled and those with
large families. However, in recent months under the new
government, the economy appears to be set for better things such
that even joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO,
and European Union no longer seems out of reach. Current policies
toward minorities in this multi-ethnic country are said to be a
"model for other countries." There is progress in the churches
too, in which according to surveys, Romanians place immense
trust-96 percent are baptized Christians, although no church has
gone public about its secret service file.

"The churches are now willfully taking up social service work.
Religious instruction is being given in the schools again, and
parents can choose the type of education they desire for their
children," says Lutheran parish worker Gerhild Cosoroaba, who
coordinates World Day of Prayer work in the country.

Some disputes have also been settled. The minority Greek Catholic
Church, which had been banned for decades, sought the return of
its legally owned properties from the Romanian Orthodox Church, to
which 87 percent of the population belong. Today there is real
ecumenical cooperation between Romanian Lutherans and the Orthodox
in protest against the building of Romania's first theme park,
"Dracula Land," near Sighisoara. The Lutherans themselves who,
with 32,000 Hungarian-speaking members in the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania, and 16,000
German-speaking members in the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg
Confession in Romania, increasingly face a diaspora situation, are
nevertheless active in pastoral care and work with youth and the
elderly.

Rev. Birgit Hamrich from Bistritz, Transylvania says many people
depend on the church for material or spiritual assistance. In the
mid 90s, Hamrich was the first woman to be ordained in the
German-speaking church. Today, 50 percent of theological students
in Sibiu are women, a sign that the church is moving forward.
Among the German-speaking Lutherans, progress is evident in other
ways. It is true that in the last decade tens of thousands
emigrated to their "foreign homeland Germany," including some
pastors. However, among the Transylvanian Saxons who stayed
behind, "mixed marriages" with Romanians are now acceptable, and
the church has opened up its language policy. During worship
services sermons are delivered in both German and Romanian, but
this does not please some of the older members who previously felt
the church had affirmed them with their ethnic identity.

"But only the two-language policy gives our church a chance at a
future," the younger people argue. These younger women wanted the
preparation for this year's World Day of Prayer, which has been
supported especially by the Lutherans in Romania since the 1970s,
to be a sign of ecumenism. "All year round in Romania there is
sisterly and brotherly cooperation, which brings together people
from different churches and different ethnic backgrounds,"
Cosoroaba stresses.

The idea of a World Day of Prayer started in the United States of
America, where Christian women gathered for the first such day in
1887. Celebrated each year on the first Friday in March, it has
become the largest world-wide ecumenical lay movement. Praying
together helps to overcome divisions and promote mutual
understanding. The day's offerings go toward supporting women's
projects in developing countries.

(By Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu, co-author of material prepared by the
German committee of the 2002 World Day of Prayer.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

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