21.08.2023

Together towards Peace and Justice

The 5th international Summer School of the UEM has started in Hofgeismar last Saturday. 20 participants from the UEM member churches in all 3 regions will diskuss about peace building, human rights and justice in the next two weeks. The hosting church of this Summer School is the Evangelical Church in Kurhesse-Waldeck (EKKW), whose deputy for diaconia and ecumenism, Claudia Brinkmann Weiss, warmly welcomed the participants in the synod hall of the church.  Bishop Dr. Beate Hofmann held the sermon at the opening service. She mentioned the history of the city of Kassel, which had been severely destroyed by bombs during World War II because it was a center of weapons production in Germany. It was here, she said, that the peace movement was very strong in the 1970s/80s. Today's situation with the war in Ukraine creates a dilemma for churches and peace activists, which they cannot escape and to which new answers must be sought. Different perspectives are important, not only European ones. 

The Summer School with the titel "Together towards Peace and Justice - International Training for Conflict Resolution, Mediation and Human Rights Protection" had been launched in 2017. In his opening speech, Dr. Jochen Motte, Executive Secretary of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation and Deputy General Secretary of the UEM, pointed out the two key elements for the UEM Training Program: "Justice and peace belong inseparably together, also from a biblical perspective. That's why we decided to fundamentally link the training of peace work and conflict resolution as well as human rights protection in terms of content." The second requirement for the UEM training is the intercontinental composition of the team of specialists who have been guiding the course since 2017. This is currently done with UEM staff members Dr. Kambale Kahongya from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Irma Simanjuntak from Indonesia and conflict resolution specialist Beate Roggenbuck from Germany. 

A network of experts in the field of peace and human rights has grown among the participants in the five years of the program. They are in contact with each other across the borders of countries and continents, exchange ideas and advise each other on their plans and programs. "It is this worldwide international exchange that makes the program so special," Brinkmann- Weiss also emphasized in her welcoming speech. Dr. Hanns Lessing, representative of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), described, "Law without fellowship can become meaningless or, in the worst case, an attitude of defending privilege." Therefore, he said, the international composition of the participants was not just an incidental characteristic of the Summer School, but its defining feature.

Lusungu Mbilinyi, who represents the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), shared his own experience as a peace expert in Zanzibar: "I myself participated in the first Summer School at a moment when I just thought that nothing was moving in our situation in Zanzibar, and when I doubted very much the effect of our work.  The conversations with the international colleagues were such an encouragement for me, they were a blessing! And in fact, the processes of understanding at home really got going again after that!"

All the organizations that sent participants to the Summer School were represented at the opening. Among them were the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, Brot für die Welt, Misereor and the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany  (EMW). The 20 participants come from 11 countries, and they will now spend two weeks on an intensive program that includes sharing best practices. Visits to local peace initiatives are also part of the program, for example to gewaltfrei handeln e.V. in Wethen.