Europe
- Bishop Peter Gáncs, Lutheran Church in Hungary
- Can we - as salt and dough - become the conscience of society? How can we fulfill the prophetic mission of the church for social justice, reconciliation, conservation of the created world? Can the church serve as a bridge over the chasms of the split society?
- Ms Marloes Keller, Protestant Church in the Netherlands
- One of the most burning issues in the Netherlands for the Protestant Church are the discussions about the separation of church and state. At the moment the Dutch Government seems to be very anxious about religious influences in the public debate.
- Ms Christina Biere, Evangelical Church in Germany
- How can the church withstand the new phenomenon of xenophobia following the situation of injustice?
- Dr Marie-Christine Michau, Evangelical Lutheran Church of France
- Church and Society… In France, the connection between these two terms is very problematic because many people think that the State and the Society don’t have to do anything with churches.
- Rev. Frank Schürer-Behrmann, Evangelical Church in Germany
- The reality of our society that we are confronted with is that of an economically and technologically extremely successful society (“Exportweltmeister”) that increasingly has subjected all other considerations to the functioning of the economy, understood as the success of the country’s large businesses active on a worldwide scale. Among other things, this has led to a growing gap between those people in our country who in some way are part of and beneficiaries of this businesses, and those who are not.
- Dr David Goodbourn, Baptist Union of Great Britain, United Kingdom
- As a minority church, we have always seen our task as providing salt and light within a wider community, and have never sought the levers of power. We feel that that history makes us better able to help others for whom being a minority is a new experience – the situation for most of the former state or established churches in Europe.
- Dr Jorgen Skov Sorensen, Council on International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark
- Europe is – I believe - different from most other parts of the world on these matters and a WCC global debate must take as its starting point the particular situation of Europe, taking into consideration the particular history of the continent. However, at the same time it must be looking at the situation in member churches and their contexts in other parts of the world, addressing the questions: What is a healthy relationship between Church and society? How can Christians (and other religious communities) express their faith in a constructive and legitimate manner in their respective societies through Christian institutions and political engagement? Can European Churches learn from non-European contexts?
