15.01.2021

General Rhenish Synod 2021

Due to the current decrees on the protection against Corona infections, the general synod of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland met this week for the first time as a video conference. The synod members and the delegates were connected online at more than 100 locations under the leadership of President Manfred Rekowski.

From the perspective of the UEM, three synod resolutions were of particular interest. These undoubtedly included the election of the new president of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. On Thursday, the general synod elected Thorsten Latzel, the 50-year-old director of the Protestant Academy in Frankfurt, to head the church, which has around 2.4 million members. He succeeds Manfred Rekowski, who is retiring next March after eight years in office. All other results of the leadership elections can be read on the website of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland.

Human rights in the Philippines and Papua/Indonesia

There was also discussion of an initiative motion on the current human rights situation in the Philippines and in West Papua, Indonesia, which resulted in the following resolution: "The General Synod of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is deeply concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines and in Papua/Indonesia. In both countries, congregations and church districts of our church have partnerships with the member churches of the United Evangelical Mission there. The General Synod knows itself to be in solidarity with the victims of violence perpetrated or tolerated by the state and fully supports the efforts of the United Evangelical Mission and its partner organizations for more transparency and an end to impunity for obviously politically motivated murders and human rights violations of all kinds in both partner countries."

25 years of internationalization of the United Evangelical Mission

The committee for public responsibility also discussed the fact that 25 years ago the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) was transformed from a German mission organization into an international communion of churches. As a result, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland went from being a sponsoring church of the UEM to being a member alongside the then 34 other churches in Africa, Asia and Germany. In 1993, before the founding of the international UEM, the decisions of the EKiR synod ensured that the governing bodies of this new communion were no longer headed by a majority from Germany, but on a parity basis, by 6 representatives each from the regions of Africa, Asia and Germany.

The General Synod 2021 agreed to ask the church congregations, church districts, offices and institutions in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland to honor the anniversary on the occasion of 25 years of internationalization of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) in church services, intercessions, partnership events or in any other suitable way.

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