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Dear sisters and brothers,
1. It is a great joy for me to finally see you all again in this central committee accompanied by a community of beloved staff, guests, and advisors. Two years is a long time. And yet through digital channels and encounters at other opportunities we as the Leadership of the Central Committee have seen many of you even physically in between. At our executive committee meetings in Colombia and Cyprus we received a wonderful hospitality from some of you as our hosts and, like in Nigeria, in addition even quite extensively danced with you!
2. Two years is a relatively short time. And yet, given the dramatic changes in the world – it is also a very long time. Since our meeting in Geneva, we have experienced ongoing and even dramatically increasing suffering through violence in the Middle East, in Sudan, in Ukraine, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Kongo, Haiti, and so many other places on this earth.
3. In our executive committee meeting in May we clearly denounced the indefensible actions of the Israeli government in Gaza and the unspeakable suffering it causes amongst the people in Gaza. We have asked the churches not to remain silent in the face of such appalling inhumanity. We urgently called for:
- An immediate and unconditional ceasefire;
- An end to the blockade of Gaza, and to all forms of collective punishment of the population of the territory;
- Immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to all those in need in Gaza; and
- Coordinated international action to halt the destruction, to provide sufficient humanitarian assistance commensurate with the scale of the need as assessed by the United Nations and independent humanitarian agencies, and to bring perpetrators of crimes under international law to justice.
4. In various statements since our last central committee meeting, we have affirmed our call for a ceasefire in Ukraine from the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, and we have deplored the loss of so many lives in this illegal and immoral war that only knows losers. We have denounced the continuous bombing of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army with many civilian victims.
5. In a conference on keeping and saving the religious and cultural heritage of Armenia in Artsakh, hosted by the Swiss Protestant church in Bern, we listened to excellent speakers, including the Catholicos of All Armenians Patriarch Karekin II. We expressed our solidarity with the Armenian people confronted with the expulsion of Armenians by the army of Azerbaijan from Artsakh and with the dangers for churches and cemeteries and other Holy Sites of the Armenian people in the occupied areas. We assured our Armenian brothers and sisters of our continued prayer.
6. Not only specific violent conflicts continue to raise deep concern. The world order as a whole has been shaken. We have seen a new American administration dramatically increasing unpredictability, instability, and economic power asymmetries not only in the US but in the whole world. The destruction of USAID by the new US government has put many lives at risk worldwide and has increased the pressure on churches to save lives and assist the most vulnerable.
7. Many more developments could be named, that are reasons to worry. We are witnessing a world situation in which the involvement of the churches is desperately needed. It is needed to nurture hope in situations that seem to give no empirical evidence for hope. We must all the more give witness to faith evidence for hope and, thus, strengthen the resilience people need so urgently.
8. It is not too much to say that these remaining five years of our tenure as central committee until our next assembly will be a special moment in history for the church. A special challenge for the church. However, they will also be a special Kairos for the church. We have come together to Johannesburg for this meeting to get equipped for responding to this Kairos nurtured by our faith.
Striving for unity as a sign for the world
9. One of the most important items in the equipment we need is unity. I remember with great affection and gratitude the late Archbishop Anastasios of Albania and his wide ecumenical heart full of love for God and fellow human beings. In my speech at his funeral in January I expressed what a gift of God he was to us with his firm commitment to the ecumenical movement in general and to the WCC in particular.
10. It is, therefore, not to be underestimated that we can look with confidence to our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic church as allies in striving for unity. We still remember with gratitude Pope Francis’ sermon at his visit in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva in 2018 when he encouraged all of us to walk, pray, and work together to reach unity. We remember Pope Francis with love and gratitude and the general secretary and I went to Rome for his funeral with this love and this gratitude in our hearts.
11. Only a few weeks later, we went to Rome again together – this time with joy about the election of the new Pope Leo XIV, and a good portion of curiosity about what his first impulses to the church and to the world would be. I can tell you that we went home with joyous expectation and confidence. At the audience for church leaders and interreligious representatives on the morning after his inauguration he gave a clear witness of his future priorities as Pope.
12. As Bishop of Rome, he said, “I consider one of my priorities to be that of seeking the re-establishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. … our communion is realised to the extent that we meet in the Lord Jesus. The more faithful and obedient we are to him, the more united we are among ourselves. We Christians, then, are all called to pray and work together to reach this goal, step-by-step, which is and remains the work of the Holy Spirit.”
13. These words, but also the short personal encounters we already had with him expressed an “ecumenism of the heart” which the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe called for in its unity document. Pope Leo has made very clear in his first speeches that he does not understand this unity as a purely inner spiritual unity but as one that is striving to be visible in the world, for example, by becoming a force of peace in a world full of injustice and violence.
Celebrating the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea
14. It is my hope that the 1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which we will also celebrate during our meeting here in Johannesburg, can bring us closer together. Pope Leo has pointed to the great unifying power that comes from taking seriously the love of Jesus Christ. The assembly motto expressed the same point: “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” One might now add: Before the world, Christ’s love moves the church itself to such reconciliation and unity. With pointing to the Nicene Creed, we say: Christ’s love is one with the love of God the Creator and God the Holy Spirit. Only the three together make it possible that we today can feel this love in our creaturely existence and can trust that it will always accompany us even beyond our earthly existence. This is what we as churches all believe together.
15. Therefore, focusing on the trinitarian God means newly focusing on our unity as churches. The many conferences and other activities, celebrating the Nicaea anniversary, culminating in the big Faith and Order conference in October in Egypt, will hopefully give us a push towards growing unity.
16. I want to point your attention to one activity that connects in a powerful way the two dimensions of unity that I have mentioned: the spiritual one and the moral, ethical – you could also say – worldly one. In my addresses to the executive committee in the past year I have reported on what has become much more than just an activity. It has become a process. I call it the “Assisi process.” And it connects the spiritual theme of praising God the creator for the beauty of creation and the moral, ethical theme of how to react to the continuous human destruction of non-human nature.
The Assisi process for a Feast of Creation in the church year
17. On 15-16 March 2024, an inspiring ecumenical meeting took place in Assisi. Representatives of various global church families came together to reflect about the possibility of honouring the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea by launching a process to establish a new ecumenical feast in the church year that will celebrate God the creator by a Feast of Creation. It would take up the impulse by the Orthodox world, originally initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarch, to observe a Season of Creation focused around 1 September and to give it a more prominent place also in Western Christianity. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, as the head of the Anglican communion, gave encouraging messages to the conference. The prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Cardinal Victor Fernandez and myself, as the moderator of the WCC central committee, gave theological lectures on the creation theme and supported the idea.
18. The conference led to an inspiring dynamic. Three out of five continental Catholic bishops` conferences have already supported it. At the follow-up conference in May of this year, again in Assisi, pretty much all the major church families were represented and agreed that the Assisi process is a promising initiative and should be a lasting outcome of Nicaea’s 1700th anniversary year.
19. Let me summarize in three points why this Assisi process is so promising.
20. First, it is genuinely spiritual. The biblical texts, especially the psalms, which express the praise of creation, are a wonderful source of spiritual nourishment. The beauty of creation, as an expression of the beauty of the God in whom we all believe, is a source of great resilience in the world that struggles with so many crises.
21. God is present today, through the creator, through Christ, through the Holy Spirit. The Assisi process could be seen as a path, maybe even as a pilgrimage for rediscovering the beauty of the Trinitarian God at work in God’s creation.
22. Second, the process addresses very clearly some of the biggest moral challenges with which the world is struggling. Hardly anyone in the scientific community debates anymore the destructive consequences of human-caused climate change. I will elaborate on that later in this report. They are symptoms of a very fundamental challenge. The Western paradigm of the human being, conquering nature, being the master of nature rather than being in relation with nature, has come to an end. Pope Francis – in his encyclical Laudato Si and many other statements - has pointed to this challenge again and again. The Ecumenical Patriarch has made it into one of his top priorities – fully in tune with what the World Council of Churches has emphasized again and again for decades: The modern ecological crisis has deep spiritual roots. And it needs to be addressed courageously and with force—spiritually, morally, and also politically.
23. Therefore, it is of enormous importance when all the big Christian traditions on this globe now unite in this Assisi process towards a focusing point in the church year, in which this fundamental question of spiritual orientation is addressed. Several billion inhabitants of this earth are members of churches and religious communities which are now present here and have engaged in the Assisi process. I would not know of any other group of people on this globe who would have a similar potential to encourage the global spiritual reorientation that we so desperately need!
24. Third, it is a major experience in this process that the churches in all their diversity can join in acting for a common new feast in the church year. Maybe this process can be the fruit of an “ecumenism of the heart” for which the assembly called. It involves people at the grassroots level as much as those who bear responsibility in church leadership.
25. If the Assisi process continues to develop and reach its goal it might become a landmark in the history of Christianity. The present year of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is an optimal occasion to give a decisive push to this process, envisioning a feast in the church year that would be a wonderful expression of the trinitarian essence that unites us as churches to this day.
26. My hope is that the central committee will not only support the idea but also call for wide support in the global community of churches.
27. I see a close link between the Assisi process and our intention to launch an Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action at this meeting of the central committee. Let me deepen what I have said about the moral-ethical aspect of the possible Feast of Creation.
Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action
28. I have said that these remaining years of our term as central committee are a special Kairos for the church and for the world. If we take seriously what science says, this is especially evident for our response to global warming. The time window for responsibly responding to it is closing. These next years will decide about whether the destructive consequences of climate change can be kept on a tolerable level.
29. Recent events have been a sad confirmation of the appropriateness of many voices of the past which have warned us against unseen upcoming natural disasters. Huge wildfires in Canada, California, and Greece; massive flooding in Eastern Europe, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal; and devastating storms in Asia and in the Caribbean speak a clear language and cost not only many lives but also enormous amounts of money. As the world's largest reinsurer Munich Re reports, worldwide natural disasters caused losses amounting to 320 billion US dollars in 2024 – money that would be so much needed for sustainable human development rather than for repair of destruction.
30. The high cost of global warming has now reached more and more the global north. However, those who are most terribly affected are people in the global south. Those who have contributed least to climate change are its first victims. Everyone with a clear mind and a sensitive heart understands how grave this injustice is.
31. I will never forget when, at one of my visits as Lutheran bishop of Bavaria in our Tanzanian partner church, my friends there showed me the parched fields and development projects that were simply destroyed by the extreme weather conditions caused by climate change. I remember the shame I felt when I realized that our CO2 emissions in Germany are between 9 and 10 tons per capita per year, compared to 0.2 tons in Tanzania.
32. I will also never forget an experience in Papua New Guinea. An old man in a village by the sea that we visited showed us a wooden pole standing 50 meters out in the water and said, “Over there by the wooden pole, there used to be land in my childhood.” And he told us that one of the islands off the coast is already sinking into the sea. The inhabitants had to be resettled. Knowing how much, for the Papuans, the land is part of their identity, I can imagine the pain this means. In Papua New Guinea, CO2 emissions per capita and per year are 0.8 tons. Since then, I have heard in many WCC meetings the stories of our brothers and sisters in the Pacific that tell us about the very threat to their existence from continuously rising ocean levels.
33. What I experience in the global community of churches compels me to get engaged in the public and political debates in my own country. How could I leave all the experiences elsewhere behind when I return to Germany and follow the discussions about climate policy there? How could I not interfere in the political debates at home if I want to look the people in Tanzania or Papua New Guinea in the eye, whom, in my sermons there, I have just addressed as “sisters and brothers!?”
34. What is relevant for global justice is also relevant for intergenerational justice. My oldest grandson is now six years old. He will be my age in the year 2081. I want him to have a life at least as good as mine. And I believe that every other grandfather, every grandmother, on this globe has the same wish. Climate science clearly tells us that we need a fundamental change, true metanoia, to make this possible. Who would be more predestined to be a driving force in the process necessary for that than the churches and religious communities?! We are rooted locally everywhere in the world, from the great metropoles in the urban areas to the smallest villages in the rainforest, and at the same time we are united in a global horizon based on our common faith in God the creator of heaven and earth. Who should be such driving force for metanoia in global civil society if not we as churches and religious communities?!
35. And yes, we also have to become outspoken in the necessary political debates and have to address the systemic reasons for present and future suffering. It is not enough to bind the wounds of the victims. It is necessary to overcome the roots of their victimization. We also have to put our hands where our mouth is and give good examples by limiting CO2 emissions to what is absolutely necessary, by reducing our use of plastic, for example, in water bottles, by turning to regenerative energies in our buildings and by sharing resources, so everyone can afford a life without destruction of non-human nature.
36. If we speak of metanoia as a fundamental change of direction in our lives, then we must also talk about sin.
Sin and metanoia – addressing nationalism and colonialism
37. I believe that understanding the character of sin is the first step to the change that we need so desperately and that can be expressed with the old Greek term of metanoia. And while for some these words are expressions of an outdated form of spirituality that needs to be overcome to discover life in its fullness, I believe the opposite is the case. Sure enough, these words have indeed often been misused to put people down rather than encouraging them. Feminist theological scholarship has shown the destructive effect that old theological interpretations such as self-love as a sin have had on women. They have shown how discovering self-love can be a force of healing rather than putting it down as sin.
38. We can, however, discover the healing potential of talking about sin and its immense public and political relevance if we understand this concept in relationship categories. A key idea for that can be Martin Luther’s understanding of sin as "homo incurvatus in seipsum,” as a human being "being crooked in him or herself.” The word “sin,” thus, gives expression to familiar forms of human self-isolation from God and one's fellow human beings. Dominating, ignoring, or even dehumanizing others is a clear form of sin. A culture of sober self-perception, which makes it possible to speak of human sin, is the first step towards overcoming the self-isolation associated with it. This is why the confession part of our worship services is so important. Only where sin is called by name can the liberating power of forgiveness be experienced.
39. Reflecting upon this in the universal horizon of the one world shows the enlightening quality of such a relational understanding of sin. We can further develop Luther’s concept of sin by speaking of "communio incurvata in seipsam," a “community crooked in itself.” Reflecting about what I just elaborated on the climate catastrophe, one can say: What we deal with is a “generation crooked in itself.” Denial of this generation to care for future generations is a sin.
40. But this category of analysis helps us understand also other pressing challenges of our times. Whoever puts his own country or his own ethnic group above others and puts them down, produces hatred, sometimes violence and in the end perhaps even countless deaths. That is why nationalism is a manifestation of sin. Nationalism poisons the climate between people. It is in contradiction to all that the Christian tradition stands for. The problem is not loving our own country. If patriotism is simply an expression of gratefulness for how blessed we are in where God put us, it is an asset. If, however, loving your country turns into putting it above others and ignoring or denying the beauty of others, then, it is an expression of the sin of nationalism.
41. Unfortunately, the churches have way too often been part of the problem instead of part of the solution. My own country is a sad example. I have grown up with a remembrance culture that tried to make sure that this never happens again. Donald Shriver, the former president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, published a brilliant book in 2008 on how countries deal with the dark sides of their history. The title is telling: “Honest patriots. Loving your country enough to remember its misdeeds.”[i]
42. The concept of sin as being crooked in oneself is also very relevant for a theme that has gained increasing relevance for different programs in our work as WCC. Colonialism has been one of the most terrible expressions of sin, of “communio incurvata in seipsam,” of “community crooked in itself.”
43. In a conference in Berlin a few weeks ago we have the commemorated the 140th anniversary year of the “Berlin Conference” in 1884/85. In the 1884/1885 conference Africa was divided up between the major European colonial powers. It is evident how the arbitrary drawing of lines on the map to mark future borders which are visible to this day in the straight borderlines on our maps, is a source of conflicts until today. The borders were drawn purely according to the power interests of the colonial powers and their economic greed. No Africans were at the table. The colonialist powers were crooked in themselves. The Eurocentrism of the colonialists kept the European powers from even seeing those whose land they took, leave alone treating them as fellow human beings. This sin has led to violent occupation, humiliation, and killing of so many.
44. Metanoia now means understanding the injustice of colonialism, seeing how it still bears responsibility for systemic injustices today and developing and implementing strategies to overcome such injustices.
45. Since the conference took place in Berlin and since the moderator happens to be German, let me also add this: The sin of colonialism remains to be one of the blind spots of our German remembrance culture. Fortunately, we have established such remembrance culture in relation to the historical crime of the holocaust. A similar effort to establish a true remembrance culture in relation to the crime of colonialism is undertaken only by a few. My hope is that the presence of the WCC with this conference in Berlin can encourage us in my country to become many.
Public theology
46. Looking at the examples of climate policy, nationalism, and colonialism I have pleaded for a prophetic public voice of the churches. If human suffering is caused by political decisions, we must advocate for political decisions that overcome such suffering.
47. However, three clarifications need to be made:
48. First, we must clarify what we mean by “political.” If someone says: “the church should not get involved in politics” and means party politics or political power-plays, then one can only agree. But if this admonition is meant to keep us from public advocacy for justice, for the poor and vulnerable, for overcoming violence or for overcoming the destruction of non-human nature, then we clearly have to disagree. The church is called to have the courage to speak truth to power and defend the values of the gospel, even if the government dislikes it. Whether or how this is possible can vary very much due to the context. Especially with repressive governments, prophetic clarity will be coupled with prudence. However, programmatically excluding the realm of politics and public life from the witness of the church would betray our faith that Christ is the Lord in all areas of our lives.
49. Second, it must be clear, what the source of political intervention by the church is. It is the gospel which must inform what we say in politics – not vice versa! Nationalist governments often misuse religious rhetoric for their nationalist agenda. They use representatives of the church to bless their politics. Then, politics drives the church. As we have seen in our reflection of nationalism as a sin, this betrays the values of the gospel. When we intervene in politics, our question should always be: is this a consequence of our belief in Christ and his love which moves the world to reconciliation and unity? Or is our motivation for public intervention to please a government or another worldly power. Our motto can never be “our country first” but must always be “Gospel first, Christ first!”
50. Third, we must always make the distinction between the fundamental values of the gospel like love of neighbour, justice for the poor, or protection of God given life on one hand and concrete political proposals on the other side. While the former deserve our strong commitment, the latter must always be open for discourse. If the discussions show that other proposals are better able to implement the values we advocate for, then we must learn from that. In short: we need passionate advocacy for the values of the gospel and complete openness for the discourse about its concrete political consequences.
Waiting for God’s time
51. We are called to pray, to do justice, and to wait for God’s time. These are the three elements that Dietrich Bonhoeffer has once identified as the decisive characteristics of a Christian existence. If our prayer is really a prayer of the heart, it will show in doing and advocating justice. In a time in which crises and so much suffering connected to these crises threaten to overwhelm us, maybe the third element is the most important one, because it enables us to address the other two. Waiting for God’s time means trusting that this world is not moving towards a dark hole, but towards a new heaven and a new earth, in which justice, reconciliation, and unity will reign. We all know already from our childhood, for example at Christmas before we get our presents, how hard waiting can be. Now, in our adult life, waiting is sometimes almost intolerable – when we deal with hunger, terror, violence, injustice, and so much suffering. Why is this still happening? When will this end? What is God doing? When is God’s time coming?
52. Dear sisters and brothers, waiting is much easier when you are in company. Therefore, I am so grateful for the company that I am experiencing here in the WCC. I am deeply thankful for the work together with my two vice moderators Archbishop Vicken and Rev. Merlyn and with our general secretary Jerry. It is a work of friendship. I am equally thankful for the immensely committed work of our WCC staff and all the support we get from them. I am always amazed of how much they achieve with such limited resources. I also want to express my deep appreciation for our executive committee. Their spirit of love has made it a joy for me – and I might be allowed to say – for us, to chair our meetings. Again and again, I find it miraculous how we can find consensus even in very difficult questions. Only the love of Christ can make such miracles possible.
53. Let me also thank you as the central committee for all your passion and commitment. It is wonderful to feel at home in a community of brothers and sisters who represent so many contexts of this world. Let me also express my joy about the presence of so many young people. I want to especially acknowledge the contributions that the stewards are making to make this central committee a success. It is much more than only their important service to the assembly that makes their presence so special. It is also the inspiration we get from them through multiple informal exchanges I expect during this coming week.
54. As central committee members elected by the assembly, we have a great responsibility. At this meeting, we will initiate a midterm review of strategies and governance, we will initiate preparations for the next assembly in 2030, we will elect a second executive committee, beginning its work in November 2026, and numerous other committees accompanying our work until the next assembly. We will look at our finances. And there are burning public issues such as the situation in Israel and Palestine that will catch our attention and will have to be discussed. There will be controversies, maybe intense controversies, but I trust that our consensus principle with its culture of true listening and brother and sisterly reflecting will guide us well through them.
55. When we are now together here in Johannesburg in this meeting, let us encourage each other in our trust in God. Let us remind each other that we do not have to despair because we know that our God is there, that our God is acting, that our God will make visible the justice, the reconciliation, the unity that has come though Christ’s death and resurrection and that we as the church are called to witness it already now. We will continue our pilgrimage praying and doing justice, keeping our eyes open for the signs of the kingdom to come and trustfully waiting for God’s time.
[i] Donald Shriver, Honest patriots. Loving your country enough to remember its misdeeds, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
