by Carol from India

„We are in this together!“ I have the feeling that this sentence has the power to unites the whole world. I realised it on 26th March 2020. Usually, the Department of Ecumenism in the Church of Dortmund and the Amt für Mission, Ökumene und kirchliche Weltverantwortung (MÖWe) conducts a very cool hangout for everyone. This hangout is known as Ecumenical Hangout (or Ökumene Hangout in Deutsch), it takes place once in a month in a pub in the City of Dortmund and everyone is invited. Many people join us; we all sit, talk, eat and hang out, discussing about ecumenical topics and sharing about church life.

Due to this corona crises, we all were not able to meet and hence, Carolin and her colleages Christina and Lioba came up with a mind-blowing idea. They were wondering how other people in other parts of the world are now dealing with the new situation, and they were wondering if it would be possible to unite together. They all put in a lot of efforts and organised an international meeting call called “Global Ecumenical Hangout” on Zoom video chat.
Imagine people from all over the world were invited and were welcomed to join. When Carolin shared this idea with me, I was amazed. I could not even imagine how it would be like. I was very happy and excited about being a part of this wonderful plan. Carolin asked me to invite all my family members and friends from India.

The Global Ecumenical Hangout started at 2pm UTC – it was 2pm in Dortmund, 3pm in Capetown, 4pm in Daressalam, 6:30 pm in Colombo, 8pm in Yogyakarta and 9pm in Hongkong, when more than 50 people from all over the world participated. Everyone was asked to add their countries name behind their names. They all were muted, but in case, if anyone wanted to speak, they were allowed to unmute themselves, send messages or raise their hands through an emoji. I got goose bumps, when I saw different people from different countries. I was very happy because my four friends (Bhavisha, Pallavee, Pratiksha and Tanuj), and my small sister and my mom and my dad participated – they represented India. Even the previous volunteers (Rachel from Hongkong, Dika and Andrew from Indonesia) participated in this conference call.

The Global Ecumenical Hangout started with an introduction given by Lioba, Christina and Carolin. After the introduction, Lioba explained the technical part, which included Audio, video, chat, reactions, how to close microphones and to open it. She also explained about the hand emoji which could be used in case anyone wanted to speak.

After the technical introduction, Carolin explained the reason behind this international meeting call. She asked everyone a question: Why are we here together? She also answered this question by telling all of us that these last days have changed the face of the world. In all villages, cities, town, countries and continents, people are dealing with challenges of CORONA-19 virus. This pandemic has changed everyone’s daily life and everyone is busy re-organising his or her schedules. Children are not able to go to school, shops are locked down, health systems are overloaded and everyone is in fear for the elderly people. Some challenges that everyone is facing are equal, some challenges may also be different in various countries.

Christina also asked everyone a question: What does it mean to be Christian in this crisis? She replied, it means that we are connect to each other and that we all together can connect to God. And we believe that via Zoom this is possible.

Later on, there was a moment of silence; Christina continued with a prayer and after that everyone was separated automatically into the break out groups by Lioba. It was a small group of two people. Lioba did her best to bring two people from two different countries together in a virtual room. That’s why we were asked to put our countries name behind our names at the beginning of the meeting.

In the first break out group, each person had five minutes each to talk and express their feelings. We were asked to share about our personal experiences in these last days. It was like a small interview; we were asked to ask each other the following questions: Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you in the moment? How do you feel?
The questions were also posted in the chat. In this small group, each person was responsible for his/ her time. After ten minutes, everyone came back in the main session group.

After returning to the main session group, Christina welcomed everyone back and she asked us all whether we all had a good time taking in this breakout groups. She also made sure that no one had a problem and she asked everyone that if it’s okay to continue and go into the second round.

The second round was for 30 minutes, everyone was sent again to their breakout groups. There were three questions for round two:
The First question was about your personal feelings, the second was about how your faith community deals with Corona crisis and how you celebrate Easter this year. Finally, we were also asked to speak about trust: allowing confidence to be your guide these Easter days, what would happen? What gives you strength and hope in these times?

After round two, everyone came back to the main session group. Carolin welcomed everyone back and asked everybody sharing their story? How did they feel in the small groups? How was it to listen to someone else story?

I was sent in a meeting room with Jana from Germany. She was the boss of Josephat, a former volunteer from the Volunteershouse, and hence I already knew her. We both shared our thoughts and answered the question respectively. After answering the question, we both went back to the main meeting room.
The meeting took place for 1 hour 30 minutes. The hangout was closed with three prayers from different people with different backgrounds: from Europe, Asia and Africa. We closed the hangout with praying the Lords prayer together – everybody in his or her own language.

At the end of the First Global Ecumenical Hangout, the team asked all participants for a feedback. Although it is not possible to copy and paste ALL the wonderful feedback, I want to share some of them at the end of this article to show you, that we are all in this together.

Jacques (Rwanda): Thank you very much! I will be happy to join such a meeting again. God bless you. Stay safe.
Mathew (India): A fantastic experience, would love to continue the dialogue.
Annika, Germany Thank you so much for organising!!!! I would totally join again!
Emily (UK): Thank you for inviting me to the session. I would love to take part in another one. Blessings to you all, stay safe and healthy.
Tom (Germany): In the conversation with Stella from Indonesia, I realized once again how much more difficult the situation in other countries is. I am looking forward to a new edition!
Paulin DR (Kongo): It was amazing to see how things was well organized, congratulations. It was good, I am waiting the next one.
Dorothe (Germany): Very, very cool!!! Thank you for the invitation. My first conversation didn’t work, but the 2nd was with a young woman from Sri Lanka and that was really interesting.
Rachel (Hong Kong): That’s great! Thanks for organizing!
Matthias (Germany): It was a great experience! The use of the medium is becoming more and more common.
Juri (Germany): Thank you for the nice idea, I could take something with me!
Esperance,DR (Kongo): It was also my first time having a digital meeting like that. I really enjoyed.
Stella (Indonesia): Terima kasih everyone. Bye

The next Global Ecumenical Hangout will be this Thursday, 9 April 2020. For more information, please join our facebook group or click HERE.