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Ivo Huber
Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Germany
I was present at the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in my then parish in Ansbach. Ansbach is a small town near Nuremberg, rich in tradition, formerly 100% Lutheran and with strong links to the Reformer Martin Luther through the local count at that time, the Margrave of Ansbach-Brandenburg, who was a dedicated follower of the reformer. The people of Ansbach still speak of their town as the Lutheran Rome to this day. That is certainly a gross exaggeration, but shows how the people still assess and perceive themselves today. For this reason, to experience the signing of the Joint Declaration in Ansbach was something special for me. Of course Ansbach changed after the Second World War. There are now two lively Roman Catholic parishes in the town and the relationship with these parishes seems to me to be good and important. Although I was very pleased about the signing, I discovered that this event made quite a number of people uneasy. Many people asked themselves whether we were surrendering something to the Roman Catholic Church that constitutes our own identity. They especially asked themselves what would happen next? It was not meant in a derogatory sense, and is certainly not an expression of despondency, but shows a keen discernment of how they really are, and the anticipation of change AFTER THE SIGNING The period immediately after the signing was characterised by many expectations on both sides. For the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria the signing coincided with a change in the episcopate. The final official act of the outgoing bishop, it can be said, was being a signatory to the Joint Declaration in Augsburg. Appropriately the signing also marked the taking up of office of the current bishop, Dr Johannes Friedrich, who was also appointed officer responsible for relations with the Roman Catholic church in the VELKD (United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany) shortly after his inauguration as bishop. Although hopes in both churches were high, or perhaps it can even be said because hopes were so high, and also since the run-up period had been marked by considerable disputes among leading theologians especially on the Lutheran side in Germany, the opposite happened. Both churches, if they will excuse this much abridged observation, tended to serve their own clientele in the period after the Joint Declaration rather than opening up new ecumenical avenues. First of all the hopes of the �kumenischen Kirchentag in Berlin were dashed. Little came of the much demanded official joint Communion or the joint celebration of the Eucharist or of a willingness to invite one another to the Eucharist, which could have been granted for this unique moment in Church history. But as if that were not enough, the Roman Catholic Church published �Dominus Iesus�, a document that, to put it bluntly, denied the Lutheran Church the respect that the churches might have expected after the signing of the Joint Declaration and the many forward looking bilateral talks. Once again we were seen not as a church but only as an ecclesiastical community. People were angered and felt that they did not need to be given approbation of their own church existence by the Roman Catholic Church, and certainly did not want to be the kind of church that the Roman Catholic Church considers itself. These statements were certainly not wrong, but at the same time leave no doubt as to how disappointed and hurt people had been. The Evangelical Church in Germany was not long in responding. To clarify the point the text �A Protestant Understanding of Church Fellowship� declared evangelical matters, and this clearly meant the biblical understanding of what the church is, to be incompatible with the Roman Catholic understanding of what the church is. Offices of ministry or even church structures, which are of great significance to the Roman Catholic church, were almost marginalised in the text. This was strong stuff, and the Roman Catholic faction responded accordingly. To my regret both churches are turning a blind eye to the model they agreed to and to the method they made promises to each other when they signed the Joint Declaration. The model of �unity in diversity� and the method of �differentiated consensus� linked to it clearly demands not only theological work on differentiation but also a great and difficult adjustment - having to recognise that other churches also give salvation while at the same time being committed to your own church, although this does not seem essential at first. It demands that you renounce the assumption of absolute validity of your own church without going as far as that �ecclesiological relativism� in which all denominations are equally the Church of Jesus Christ, or in which there is no longer any interest in this question (of truth). This model wants people to love their own church inherently, but also to put aside ways that are too specific and non-essential, and at the same time to understand and respect the concerns and ways of other denominations, even allocating these denominations a corrective and supplementary function. OUTLOOK In spite of this, I would like to make it very clear that the �kumenische Kirchentag in Berlin was not only a great success, it was a missionary signal and a real encouragement. The Congress was positive and fundamentally uncomplicated, and so is the day-to-day relationship of the two large churches in Germany. Unfortunately this has not been the general perception by the public, which has quite simply been because media interest has focused on the issue of the joint Eucharist and the resultant disagreement. This is a shame and was unfortunately further emphasised in another disagreement that took place after the Congress. The ecumenical quarrels are dominating the media to such an extent that it is very difficult for the churches to bring other important issues into the public domain. As soon as the churches make a statement, whether on the current debate for reshaping the German social system, on Agenda 2010, which is a hot issue at the moment, or on anything else at all, the ecclesiastical announcements are usually precipitately labelled and put in the same box as topics that have already been aired in the ecumenical discussions. Almost by default the churches are deemed to have only their own interests at heart, to be set apart, to be unjust and in any case to lack Christian vision. It seems to me that at the moment the ecumenical question is the paradigm per se for the general weak condition that both churches are in. By this I do not mean that the ecumenical movement and the disputes going on in it caused this weak condition. The present weakness of both churches has many causes that I cannot go into now. It is just that many things have come to a head in the issue of ecumenism in Germany. For this reason it will be very important to the churches to put in considerable effort to make headway in this area. The guiding principle for this must be unity in diversity and the necessary corrective and supplementary function of both denominations for the sake of the common truth. Although many issues, and this applies in particular to the joint Eucharist and the issue around the office of ministry, may still need a lot of work, and in some, as with the matter of speaking to Cardinal Lehman, a whole new start will be necessary, we need to send new positive signals to one another immediately, if only to widen our scope for taking action, just as the officer responsible for relations with the Roman Catholic church in the VELKD, Bishop Friedrich recently demanded.
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