"Half-Half Evangelical-Catholic"

Created: 01/22/2022, 09:02

Invitations to the ecumenical New Year's reception in the Katharina-von-Bora-Haus (from left): Berg's Protestant pastor Johannes Habdank, pastor Gerson Raabe and Aufkirchen's Catholic pastor Albert Zott.

© Andrea Jaksch

There used to be over 100 visitors on site, on Thursday only around 30. But the most important thing: the traditional ecumenical New Year's reception in the Katharina-von-Bora-Haus in Berg could take place despite Corona.

Berg

– At this year's ecumenical New Year's reception in Berg, Pastor Gerson Raabe from Munich was invited as a guest speaker. He held a reading from his book “Ecumenism at any price? A Protestant interjection” followed by a discussion. Because of the pandemic, only around 30 listeners were present this time. Those who were unable to be present had the opportunity to be part of the online live stream.

"Whatever may come in this new year, whatever we have to go through, let's get it under control," said Aufkirchen's Catholic pastor Albert Zott in his short welcome speech. He was referring to a little Bible story in which Jacob fights an angel, puts him in a headlock and won't let go until the angel has blessed him. Pastor Zott wishes this perseverance for the coming year. Berg's Protestant pastor Johannes Habdank also welcomed the guests present and the spectators at home, including Berg's municipal councilors and Mayor Rupert Steigenberger. "There were 42 calls online," explained Habdank, "about half-half Evangelical-Catholic."

The ecumenical New Year's reception has traditionally taken place since 2004, the year in which the Evangelical Church in Berg was founded as an independent parish.

"The reception is organized alternately under the direction of the Catholic or Protestant community, which invites a speaker on its own responsibility," says Pastor Habdank.

Pastor Gerson Raabe from Munich was this year's speaker. He has been friends with Pastor Habdank for 40 years. "We met in 1982 in the first semester of theology in a Hebrew course," he said. After graduating, Raabe worked as a pastor in various regions of Munich, worked as a lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilian University, took up an orchestra with several performances a year in addition to religion and published six books. Including his current work “Ecumenism at any price? A protestant interjection”, which was published by Claudius Verlag in 2018. In it, the author deals with the problems of ecumenism from a Protestant point of view, aspects of a Protestant profile or the different forms of expression of the faith of Catholics compared to those of Protestants.

Pastor Raabe read from that work on Thursday.

He presented individual passages of text and took the audience on a detailed foray through his book for about an hour.

Afterwards there was the opportunity for discussion, in which various questions on the topic were asked.

"That was nice," said speaker Raabe later.

"After that we were able to exchange ideas over a glass of wine and some bread." Those who are interested in his lecture can still watch it on the homepage of the Protestant parish of Berg.

Vanessa Long