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German Church Convention: Break the Chains of Poverty

by Wolfgang Polzer
June 12, 2007
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COLOGNE (ANS) -- One of the major church conventions in Europe, the German Protestant Kirchentag, has ended with criticism of the results of the parallel G8 summit and the negative effects of globalization and climate change.

More than 110,000 participants gathered in Cologne, June 6 - 10, for the biannual event. Political leaders like the German chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Koehler as well as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Muhammad Yunus and Desmond Tutu discussed burning world issues, for instance poverty and HIV-Aids.

International evangelical leaders like the International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Geoff Tunnicliffe, joined in calls for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, which call for a reduction of extreme poverty by half by the year 2015.

Speaking to the German evangelical news agency "idea" Tunnicliffe commended Chancellor Merkel for her leadership at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. It was a good sign, he said, that climate change remained high on the international agenda. At least some progress had been made with respect to environmental measures being dealt with within the UN framework.

Tunnicliffe is disappointed, however, that no timetables have been set with regard to the fight against HIV-Aids, Aid to the poorer nations and the situation in the West Sudanese province Darfur, where mounted Islamic militia harass local communities. He expressed the hope that Africa would remain high on the agenda for next year's G8 summit in Japan.

Yunus, professor for economics in Dhaka, Bangladesh, also criticized the G8 summit. The Millennium Development Goals had not been discussed with the seriousness they deserved, the inventor of the micro credit system told reporters at the Kirchentag.

He had expressed his deep disappointment to Chancellor Merkel that the half-way point of the Millennium process had not been used for an in-depth review of the achievements. Yunus said that his home country was on schedule in all of the eight goals defined in the year 2000. It was still possible to reach the goals by 2015, he aid.

The effects of climate change were already visible in Bangladesh. Some offshore islands had become smaller as a result of the rising sea level. Up to 17 percent of the total area of Bangladesh could one day be under water.

The major religions could play an important role in the fight against poverty, said the Muslim professor. All religions were against poverty, he said; it was a matter of putting faith into action.

German President Horst Koehler also demanded more efforts to reach the Millennium Development goals especially with regard to Africa. Each citizen should at least know what those goals are, said the former Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. He criticized the European Union for no doing enough to reduce poverty.

At the beginning of the Kirchentag 50 representatives of seven religions - Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto and Indigenous - issued a "Call from Cologne". They challenged political and church leaders to "break the chains of poverty".

The Anglican Archbishop Tutu urged the Kirchentag participants to get involved in efforts on behalf of the poor. Jesus had made this one of the prerequisites for entering the Kingdom of God, he said.

The Kirchentag takes place every two years in a different German city and offers a wide variety of events. They range from Bible studies to political demonstrations. The dialog between Christians and Muslims was high on the agenda in Cologne, a center of Turkish immigrants in Germany.

Cologne is also one of the Catholic strongholds in Martin Luther's country. Ecumenical relations between Protestants and Catholics also played an important part at the Kirchentag. One of the highlights was an ecumenical worship service in Cologne cathedral with the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, and the leader of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland, Nikolaus Schneider.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission.

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