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New leadership duo in the EKD Council Presidency: Chairwoman Annette Kurschus (r.) And Deputy Kirsten Fehrs (l.)
Photo: Sina Schuldt / dpa
It sounds like a new beginning: With the election of Annette Kurschus to the head of the Council Presidency of the Evangelical Church, three women are now working in exposed positions in the giant EKD.
Bishop Kirsten Fehrs was appointed deputy, Anna-Nicole Heinrich, who was just 25 years old, was appointed President of the Synod in May.
But there is no real mood of optimism, since Kurschus and Fehrs are representatives of the old guard who have long held posts in the hierarchy.
The challenges are immense - after their choice, Kurschus spoke of “both a mandate and an incentive”.
The 58-year-old announced that she wanted to devote herself to protecting the climate and the environment, saying that the life on earth given by God was "more endangered than ever."
The fact that the preservation of creation costs not only commitment, but also money, is for them: "If we want to remain consistent here, really consistent, then it will cost us a lot."
The expectations of the church are "still great and always new," said Kurschus.
Whoever wanted to contradict this, because the moral height of the institution means an immense responsibility.
"Failed to deal with abuse"
In recent years, however, Protestants have not covered themselves with fame, especially when it comes to dealing with sexual abuse.
"The Protestant Church is hardly one step further in dealing with abuse," complains Detlev Zander, founder of the "Network Affected Forum" and participant in the synod.
The Protestants continued to hide behind the great scandals of the Catholic competition and fed the narrative of "individual cases".
He was fed up with the Protestant expressions of concern, the eternal assurances that were not followed by any concrete changes.
"The will is missing," says Zander.
He harshly criticizes the outgoing council chairman Bedford-Strohm: "He has to put up with the accusation that he failed to deal with abuse."
Bishop Kirsten Fehrs was the spokeswoman for the EKD Commissioner for Protection against Sexual Violence, which was set up in autumn 2018.
"Disastrously played down"
Despite honest efforts, it did not cut a good figure in some areas during the processing.
Even her predecessor in the bishopric, Maria Jepsen, had resigned because of failures in the abuse scandal surrounding a pastor in Ahrensburg.
Pastor K. allegedly abused a number of young people in the 1970s and 1980s, including his step-sons.
Fehrs commissioned an independent study.
The report published in 2014 came to the conclusion that the attacks in Ahrensburg were not isolated cases and that there were further acts of abuse in the church environment.
And what did Fehrs do?
She said: "We are also traumatized" - and by that she meant her regional church, the so-called perpetrator organization.
"We have reached our limits in Ahrensburg, and that has led to disastrous downplaying."
These limits were not really overcome in the years that followed.
The pity of those affected by abuse for the institution is accordingly limited.
Detlev Zander, a victim of abuse, says that the new chairman of the council must be measured by how seriously she will take the reappraisal in the future.
"The credibility of the church is at stake - and with it its very existence."
Like the Catholic Church, the EKD must expect to lose half of its members by 2060 - with serious consequences.
Last year, the EKD's church tax revenue fell by 5.4 percent to 5.6 billion euros.
A strict austerity course was prescribed.
Dealing with abuse should become a »manager's affair«
The new EKD boss, Kurschus, is aware of the upheavals in terms of abuse and announced that it would make processing and prevention a "boss issue".
Asking for forgiveness, repenting and breaking new ground is "the deepest core of our Christian life".
It will be interesting to see what specific measures the EKD will take in the future.
At the synod it was decided to change the ecclesiastical disciplinary law to the advantage of those affected by abuse - how exactly, however, is still unclear.
It was only in May that the church put the cooperation with the Advisory Council on the affected people on hold.
It was said that there were conflicts.
The abuse commissioner of the federal government, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, spoke out in favor of using an independent commissioner as a mediator.
There are still no valid figures on the extent of sexual crimes within the Protestant Church.
The results of a study by the research association ForuM and the IPP Institute in Munich should not be available until autumn 2023.
Hardly anyone considers the 942 cases of abuse recorded by the EKD to be a realistic number.
The Ulm psychiatrist Jörg Fegert came to an estimate on an estimated 110,000 people affected.
Lulled with dismay poetry
In addition to structural and practical failures, the culture in the Protestant church is also criticized.
Karin Krapp, affected and herself a pastor, complained at the synod about the evangelical »lyrics of concern«.
There is also a distant "corporate culture of being touched and hugging" in the church that urgently needs to be questioned.
In fact, language is a huge problem in the EKD.
Especially among representatives of the older generation, an unctuous style, tangled syntax and pompous metaphors still rule.
Authenticity and eye level with the interlocutor suffer from the ornamental rhetoric, which is often more hidden than revealed.
Compassion then sometimes acts like a routine all-purpose weapon used.
"Language is power," says Zander.
He often observed how church representatives verbally ensnared and lulled those affected by abuse, only to ultimately go home without any concrete results.
So it would be desirable for the new council to be oriented towards the young President Heinrich, who can formulate flippantly but remains concise.
"You know the EKD store, you know how things are here," said Heinrich after the election.
And indicated a new team spirit: »You will stand in front of the cameras and be the face of the Evangelical Church.
That will challenge you, challenge you, but you are not alone in the council.
We are a strong team, we support you. "
