von Hannah aus Indien.

Even before the spring has begun, Dortmund is spotted all green this year. With the branding, marketing and special church services for The German Protestant Kirchentag 19 to 23rd June 2019, the whole city shines in a bright green.

Kirchentag is a grand movement reaching far beyond a regular church event, the 5-day Kirchentag takes place once in every two years at Germany in various cities, since 1949. More than 100.000 people of all ages, religions and backgrounds come together to celebrate the grand fest. The Kirchentag is a social forum of discussion and reflection for the community and by the community. Out of the 100.000 participants, 5000 people come from foreign countries, from around 80 different nations contributing various cultures to the event.

 

The Kirchentag has over 2500 cultural spiritual and socio-political events. The five-day event starts with an opening worship service, following a Wednesday evening meeting. The next three days are filled with workshops, exhibitions, concerts, services, bible studies, after work suppers, speeches and panel discussions. Representors from politics, science, media, economy and church background, participate in these events and the grand celebration ends with two Sunday morning services one will be an Open Air service in the biggest park in Dortmund, the Westfalenpark, and the other one will be in the foodball stadium of the famous team BVB Dortmund. Why? Because there is no church in Dortmund big enough to host all 100.000 participants of the Kirchentag at the same time.

The theme of 2019 Kirchentag is ‘’What confidence is this’’ (2 Kings 18:19), Kirchentag always has a motto for every event.For example the motto “You see me” (1 Mose 16,13), “So that we become wise” (Psalm 90,12) or “There will be your heart too” (Mt. 6,21). The motto is always a verse from the bible. All events will deal with this topic. And in this year, it will be all about confidence.

Going into a little bit of the history of Kirchentag: The German Protestant Kirchentag is as old as the Federal Republic of Germany. Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff founded The Kirchentag in 1949 with some friends as a Protestant lay movement. It was a counterpart to the official church and even then a great forum for the political issues and spiritual challenges at that time.

Since the 1960s inter-religious concepts have been promoted by the Kirchentag, it looks for similarities between the religions, the coexistence between religions and cultures does not mean that religions can give up their own identity.

Between 1961 and 1989 the Kirchentag movement was divided in Western and Eastern Germany. A few weeks before the wall was built, the last common Kirchentag took place in the divided city of Berlin. Kirchentag events  were not allowed to take place in the German Democratic Republic. Therefore, there were many regional church days, prepared by courageous Christians who wanted to show their faith publicly. At the time of the division Kirchentag bet the bridges between East and West. Since 1993, the Kirchentag movement has been reunited.

We, the international Volunteers in Dortmund, are looking very much forward to Kirchentag and we are happy to have the chance to participate in Kirchentag not just in any other city, but in our very own city of Dortmund. #Dortmundshinesgreen.