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published
by
Ecumenical News International,
October 6, 2004
Protestants
and Orthodox Laud Agreement in Germany on
Baptism
By Frauke Brauns |
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Bielefeld,
Germany, 6 October (ENI)--The Evangelical Church
in Germany (EKD), the country's main Protestant
grouping, and the Istanbul-based Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople have signed an
agreement to recognise baptisms.
Under the agreement announced after a September
meeting in Istanbul, Christians who convert from
one denomination to another will not be baptised
again.
"Although [full] church fellowship does not yet
exist between our churches, we each regard the
other's members as being baptised and in the case
of a change of confession we reject undertaking a
new baptism," the two churches said in a joint
statement.
The statement was signed by Metropolitan
Augoustinos of Germany who is responsible for
Orthodox Christians in central Europe, for the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, and Bishop Rolf Koppe,
head of foreign relations for the EKD.
Baptism, a religious ceremony performed with
water, is acknowledged throughout the Christian
world to be a commandment of Jesus and the
fundamental rite of initiation into the Church.
"During our negotiations Metropolitan Augoustinos
pointed out that the Ecumenical Patriarchate in
Germany has not baptised converts for many years,"
said Dr Dagmar Heller, the EKD officer responsible
for ecumenism and Orthodoxy. "But signing this
paper helps to combat misunderstanding and
prejudices."
The EKD and the Ecumenical Patriarchate have held
talks since 1969 partly to help promote the
integration of Greek Orthodox Christians into
German society. Many Greeks came to Germany in the
1960s and 1970s to seek work in the industrial
regions of Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne
and Dusseldorf.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Germany has more
than 400 000 members, making it the country's
third biggest Christian denomination after the EKD
and the Roman Catholic Church.
A major World Council of Churches-sponsored
conference earlier this year highlighted the
importance of the mutual recognition of baptism,
considered by some to offer currently the most
promising way to promote church unity.
In 2003, the then WCC general secretary, Konrad
Raiser, said there would be "a 'Copernican
Revolution' in ecumenical dialogue if churches
were genuinely to recognise each other's baptism".
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