2003.05.03 Goethe-Institut:

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Orthodoxy in Germany

The church that followed the migrants
There is a smell of incense and burning candles even before you reach the
doorway. The faithful stand packed tightly together in the Russian Orthodox
cathedral on the Hohenzollerndamm in Berlin. Ever more people arrive, cross
themselves and join the crowd. It is the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" - Orthodox
bishops from throughout Germany have been welcomed and are celebrating the
service together.

They sing liturgical hymns and say prayers in their elaborately decorated
robes glittering with gold. Swinging incense, they process to the altar.
The people in the congregation bend down, cross themselves and follow the
liturgy reverently. Others go to the small stall in the corner of the
church, buy a handmade candle and place it before an icon with a prayer.

In the last 40 years, a vibrant Orthodox communal life like that in
Greece, Russia and Ukraine has developed in Germany too. It is estimated
that about one and a half million people belong to one of the eight member
churches of the Commission of the Orthodox Church in Germany. "The greatest
number of Orthodox Christians came to Germany when workers were being
recruited abroad in the 1960s," explains Anastasios Kallis, the
Commission's chairman. The largest of the groups is the Greek Orthodox
Church, which counts more than 300,000 members, has its headquarters in
Bonn and is led by Metropolitan Augoustinos.

Studying in Germany

Many Orthodox Christians also came to Germany from Russia and Romania
following the fall of the Iron Curtain. "Unlike other churches, which are
going to Eastern Europe to found communities, in Germany it was the guest
workers who were the first to arrive from Orthodox countries. Priests from
their home countries then came after them to care for them spiritually." No
wonder that Orthodoxy faced a crisis in Germany when many Greek guest
workers went back to Greece in the 1970s. In the mean time, however, the
situation has stabilised, the chairman of the Church Commission says. "A
third generation is starting to grow up in our communities, and the young
people are also coming to church with their parents."

Orthodox believers in Germany can now even train as priests or enter into
a monastery. A training centre for Orthodox theology has been established
at the University of Munich and has already produced its first graduates.
And four - admittedly still very small - Orthodox monasteries have also
been founded in Germany. "An Orthodox Christian can only be ordained a
priest if he is married or has joined a monastic community," says Kallis.

Orthodox priests are not allowed to live a single life - "they need a
family to be part of - either a marriage with children or a 'family' of
people practising celibacy." It has to be said that very few Germans are to
be found in the Orthodox churches. Those who do attend are married to
Orthodox partners or belong to two "very, very small communities in Munich
and Dßsseldorf". All Orthodox services are held in the language of the home
country - and the Orthodox churches in Germany do not engage in missionary
activities out of consideration for ecumenical sensitivities.

Kallis particularly emphasises this consideration in view of the current
problems in the World Council of Churches (WCC), which no longer holds
ecumenical services but only interconfessional common prayers - at the
request of the Orthodox churches. The Evangelical bishops Margot Kʲmann
(Hanover) and Wolfgang Huber (Berlin-Brandenburg) left the WCC when this
decision was taken, although the new arrangement is only a question of
terminology from the perspective of Orthodoxy. "Among Orthodox Christians,
the term 'service' automatically suggests a joint celebration of
Communion," Kallis explains the Orthodox churches' point of view. This is
why it was better to rename the WCC's interconfessional services of the
word as "common prayers". In other respects, ecumenical cooperation with
the other churches functions well. The Orthodox community also wants to
take part in the Ecumenical Convention in Berlin - and give visitors an
opportunity to learn about their churches at first hand.
Benjamin Lassiwe
The author is a freelance religious journalist in Berlin

This article was first published in the newspaper "Das Parlament", No.
18-19, 28 April/5 May 2003

online-redaktion@...
Mai 2003

Related links
Commission of the Orthodox Church in Germany (de) http://www.kokid.de/

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