10.08.2023

Where do we go from here?

Rev. Nicole Ashwood calls everyone to participate and bring their initiative in the WCC programmes. Photo by: Hans-Jürgen Gärtner, UEM

The 11th General Assembly of the WCC* has come full circle: Almost a year after the Assembly in early September 2022, interested people from the German churches now met in Bonn. The 50 participants took on questions like:

What will we take with us from Karlsruhe? What has the Assembly initiated for us?

For Luisa Kappes, youth representative in the organisation of the follow-up meeting, it is above all music and relationships: "Personally, I remember Karlsruhe through the songs," says the 23-year-old. "And it was super super nice to see all the people from the Assembly again." The meeting is organised by the Regional Service of the United Evangelical Mission, together with the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland.

The schedule of the follow-up meeting is based on the daily schedule at the General Assembly: starting with singing, a morning prayer and a talk round open the day. It is about the impression the Assembly makes on the lives of those present, what developments it starts in the churches and communities, what changes. Then Nicole Ashwood, programme executive at the WCC for "Just community of men and women", shares about perspectives of the WCC as an organisation: "We need an ecumenism of the heart and an ecumenism of the feet, walking in the sandals of Jesus Christ," Ashwood said. There is not just one crisis, and one example of them, she said, is the heating of the atmosphere: "We need to heal the burning hot planet for our sons' and daughters' sakes!"**

Lunch is not only a break, but also an opportunity to deepen the relationships formed at the Assembly. In the afternoon, the participants gather in five workshops and work on different topics, which they summarise on posters at the end. Topics are Spirituality and Critique on Racism, as well as the culture of WCC. And again, the General Assembly comes to the fore: just like in Karlsruhe, everyone walks through the room, reads the posters and positions themselves with coloured markings to what they read there, with agreement, with questions, but also with distance. Decisions at the follow-up meeting are taken by consensus, just like at the Assembly itself.

At the end of the day, there is an evening prayer and a farewell by the organising team. And yet somehow more: "I had the impression that people did not want to go home! It was really nice: the music was right, the atmosphere, the topics. I really hope that there will be meetings like this in the future," said Luisa Kappes, summing up her impression of the day.

We wish all those involved in the plenary meeting every success in further developing the topics that were initiated in Karlsruhe - and God's blessing for their common paths.

*WCC = World Council of Churches

**The quote comes from Anna Neumann of the Protestant Church District on the Sieg and Rhine in Germany.