The bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, Christian Stäblein, has spoken out in favor of an honest examination of the corona pandemic. “The first thing is to talk honestly with one another and to accept what appears in retrospect and for a necessary ‘lesson learned’,” said the bishop on Friday before the state synod meeting in Görlitz. Getting into conversation about this is a prerequisite for “to get each other back in sight.”
Strict Corona measures also applied in churches during the pandemic. Church services were canceled or could only be attended under strict rules. The bishop emphasized that in his opinion “the wrong thing did not predominate” in the pandemic. “On the contrary: I am grateful and I think we should be grateful to those responsible in politics and science,” said Stäblein. The fight against the pandemic was a “great joint effort to protect lives”.
Distancing yourself from the AfD
During the synod meeting, which runs until Saturday, the church parliament wants to debate a proposal from its council of elders, which includes a clear distancing from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as a suspected right-wing extremist case. “Democracy and the rule of law are non-negotiable for us, and anyone who actively fights them must expect our resistance,” it says. “Our church is close to people, it stays away from populism,” said Stäblein. “Ethnic limitations contradict the universal claim of our faith, as do demagogic distortions and incitement such as those carried out by the party, which is not an alternative for Germany because it wants to undermine, undermine and destroy democracy more and more openly.”
Dealing with the abuse scandal
One topic at the church parliament meeting was also the further processing of sexual abuse in the Evangelical Church. For this purpose, the church leadership provided the EKBO with around 500,000 euros at short notice. The money is intended to finance the further professionalization of individual processing, the expansion of prevention and intervention work at the level of the regional church and the equipping of an “Independent Regional Processing Commission” to be formed together with the Northern Church, said Provost Christina-Maria Bammel. It is now necessary to take care of suitable staff and appropriate equipment for employees.
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Affected sexual abuse were identified
According to Bammel, during the investigation of the EKBO’s disciplinary files in the context of the EKD’s ForuM study, 41 accused and 116 victims of sexual abuse were identified. In the period from 1946 to 2020 there were a total of 34 church disciplinary proceedings: There were a total of 27 state criminal proceedings against 22 accused. In 11 cases, prison sentences were imposed.
According to Stäblein, there can no longer be anyone who “does not want or cannot know about the horror of sexual violence in the Protestant Church and also in our church.” This includes the extent of sexual violence as well as the fact that “those affected do not “We are guilty, dear sisters and brothers, the church is guilty, it has hurt, it has betrayed, it has not looked, it has tolerated structures and not changed that facilitated and enabled the abuse.”