wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Dresden church illustrates WCC assembly theme,

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Note #8992 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05580
Oct. 26, 2005

Transforming grace

Dresden church illustrates WCC assembly theme,
rising from the rubble, a symbol of God's vision for the world

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of background articles leading
up to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Feb. 14-23, in
Porto Alegre, Brazil. Two PC(USA) journalists will help cover the Assembly:
Eva Stimson, editor of Presbyterians Today, will serve on the WCC staff as
co-editor of the daily Assembly newspaper, and Jerry L. Van Marter,
coordinator of the Presbyterian News Service, will serve as a reporter for
Ecumenical News International, a Geneva-based religious news agency.

by Margot Kaessmann 

HANOVER, Germany - On Reformation Day, Oct. 30, the Frauenkirche (Church of
Our Lady) in Dresden will be officially reopened. 

	For me, and for many other Germans, this is a sign of the grace of
God.

	Frauenkirche, a monument of Lutheran Baroque constructed between 1726
and 1743, is Germany's largest Protestant church, a landmark in a city known
as "Florence on the Elbe."

	Less than three months before the end of World War II, on Feb. 13,
1945, Dresden was destroyed by bombers from British Royal Air Force. A huge
firestorm virtually demolished the entire city. More than 40,000 people -
including large numbers of women, children, wounded people and refugees -
were killed.

	The cupola of the Frauenkirche survived the bombing, but its
sandstone could not tolerate the firestorm's heat - more than 1,000 degrees
Fahrenheit - and the building imploded two days after the attack.

	Yet there had been a miracle: About 300 people, mainly women and
children, who had taken refuge in the church and stayed until the morning of
Feb. 14, all survived.

	During the time of the German Democratic Republic, the ruins of the
the Frauenkirche stood as a mute reminder of German guilt, a call to peace, a
witness against war. I remember vividly a vigil held there during a World
Council of Churches (WCC) conference advocating justice, peace and the
integrity of creation. You could feel that times were changing. The
ecumenical movement was encouraging Christians to stand up for peace and
justice.

	So the Frauenkirche ruin was one of the places where the cry for
freedom and democracy was clearly heard. The insistent call of "No violence!"
was carried from the churches onto the streets of Dresden - and Leipzig and
East Berlin. The non-violent reunification of Germany in 1989 was the
ultimate result.

	In 1992, the city of Dresden agreed to rebuild the Frauenkirche. Many
felt that this was a mistake; they thought it should be left to serve as a
reminder of the suffering, and the guilt. Christians from all over the world
gave money for the restoration. And the building was reconstructed, faster
than anyone might have imagined.

	On June 22, 2004, a new cross was planted on the church's cupola - a
gift of the British people.

	Some of the old stones were used in the new building: scars of
history, scars of life.
 
	The ostensibly secularized people of the former East Germany are
discovering this remarkable church.

	For me, Dresden's story is a symbol of reconciliation, a sign of
God's grace that transforms the world, the theme of the upcoming WCC Assembly
in Brazil. It invites us to reflect on the fruits of human hatred and
perverse ideology.

	It is the same with human life, I believe: We go wrong, we are
misled, but God grants us a new beginning. Even when life is destroyed, when
we see no future ahead, only fighting and misery, God will save our lives, as
God saved those people sheltering in the Dresden church. That is grace. Grace
for those who live and for those who die - because this grace does not end at
the borders of life as we know it.

	God's grace also makes reconciliation possible. It was a special
moment when the cross from Britain was put on top of the Frauenkirche. The
church of Saxony gave a small replica of that cross to our church in Hanover,
as a reminder that, during the years of division by the Berlin Wall, our
churches stayed in close partnership.

	For me, God's grace teaches humility and respect for the generations
of faith before us. When I visited the Dresden church four years ago, I saw
what great inventors our fathers and mothers in faith were, long before the
innovations of technology.

	Grace is the source of life, of reconciliation, of hope for peace and
justice. And it is a sign of God's vision for this world, sometimes visible
even to those who do not believe.

	When I see all those tourists waiting in long lines to see the
Frauenkirche, I think: Aren't there indeed many ways for God's word to
transform the world and pierce the heart of the people?

	Sometimes it may be a church that is built and destroyed, and built
again. 

	Margot Kaessmann, the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Hanover, is the first woman bishop in her church, one of three female bishops
in Germany. She was a member of the WCC central committee from 1983 to 2002,
and is a delegate to the council's upcoming Assembly.

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