Editorials

Wolfgang Huber's Straight Talk

EKD Delegation Visits Turkey

March 16, 2009

The muezzin's chant is unending. Inescapably loud. The grounds of the venerable Patriarchate of Constantinople are in direct vicinity of several mosques. This makes it difficult for Patriarch Bartholomew I to forget that Orthodox Christians in today's Turkey are a dwindling minority of only a few thousand souls. The patriarch is in fact the spiritual leader of around 3.5 million Orthodox Christians, but most of them live in other European countries outside Turkey, including some 400,000 in Germany.

On March 13, the Patriarch, who bears the beautiful title of "His All Holiness," received the chairperson of the EKD Council Bishop Wolfgang Huber and an entire EKD delegation, among whom were Präses Nikolaus Schneider and Council member Marlehn Thieme, as well as the Bishop for Foreign Affairs and Ecumenism Martin Schindehütte and the Plenipotentiary of the EKD Council Bernhard Felmberg. The titular head of all Orthodox Christians throughout the world thanked his guests for their visit, which was a "great help and a significant support."
In his reply, the chairperson of the EKD Council Wolfgang Huber emphasized that the territory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is just as integral a part of the early history of Christianity as the Holy Land. Bishop Huber emphatically praised Patriarch Bartholomew for his engagement in favor of the preservation of creation and his faithful collaboration within the Conference of European Churches.

The relationship between the Patriarchate and the Turkish government is strained. This tension was visibly demonstrated by the closing in 1971 by order of the Turkish state of the church's training facility, the seminary on Chalki (in Turkish: Heybeli), an island in the Bosporus.

The EKD delegation toured the picturesque monastery of the Holy Trinity, which is situated on the grounds of the seminary. The buildings are in superb condition, meaning the seminary could be reopened overnight if the official authorization were not lacking. Generations of Orthodox priests had been trained there since 1844. Its closing in 1971 by Turkish authorities occurred without any tangible justification, apart from a legal pretext that, according to a spokesperson of the patriarchate speaking under confidentiality, is not even compatible with Turkish legislation.

That evening, the Council chairperson speaking straight-forwardly called for better implementation of religious freedom in Turkey.  In his address before over 250 persons in the Kaisersaal of the German Consulate General in Istanbul, Bishop Huber deplored the difference in the "degree of religious freedom between Islam, on one hand, and other religions including Christianity, on the other." He called for religious neutrality on the part of the state. There must be a clear institutional separation between the state and religious communities," he said. However, this cannot imply "indifference on the part of the state with regard to the work of faith communities." Huber enounced the principle of "benevolent neutrality," meaning that the state must support religion "without exaggerated partisanship." Huber's outspoken criticism sparked a lively debate.

Another item on the EKD delegation's schedule was a lengthy visit to the German congregation in Istanbul. In a cordial conversation with Rev. Holger Nollmann and members of the parish council, the German visitors were able to gain an appreciation of the multifaceted life of the congregation, representing a broad spectrum ranging from art and culture to the dedicated work among refugees in the metropolis of Istanbul.

At the special worship service, Bishop Huber's sermon on the "widow's mite" (Mk 12:41-44) contained words of reassurance for Christians in Turkey.  "Although Christian congregations in Turkey have become smaller today," he said, "they are like the widow's mite; they continue to have irreplaceable significance for the way of Christianity.  They witness to Christian faith in the region, which is where the apostle Paul was born and where he worked - the apostle of the Gentiles, who also brought the Christian faith to Europe and hence, to the Western world. No matter how insignificant the number of Christians in this region is, they are still God's sign of the freedom of the gospel in our time and in this place."

The last stop for the EKD delegation was Ankara, where they were received by the German ambassador. Bishop Huber gave a lecture to students of the Faculty of Divinity of Ankara entitled "Challenges of interfaith dialogue: hermeneutical issues." Huber brought modern historical-critical biblical exegesis together with the new interpretation of the Koran that is being taught at the Ankara faculty, among others, and has come to be called the Ankara School. Bishop Huber stressed the urgent task of transmitting traditional theology in a modern way, a task which is incumbent on both Moslems and Christians, saying, "Muslims and Christians alike in many places find themselves confronted with situations in which not only their own religious tradition, but religious tradition per se cannot be taken for granted.  Children and adolescents are often born into a context in which religious tradition and knowledge are no longer present.  The new generation is frequently estranged from both the Bible and the Koran; they need illumination and guidance. The hermeneutical challenge therefore presents itself as an educational task of transmitting one's own faith anew and making it understandable.
The Council chairperson concluded with the hope that Christian and Islamic theologians can enrich each other reciprocally: "If we succeed in reading and understanding the Bible and the Koran from the viewpoint of a common global responsibility and our joint obligations, a new political hermeneutic could unfold that does not derive from the considerations and traditional thinking of one religion alone, but incorporates a perspective of dialogue and communication. This is the great task before us. By taking on this task, we are not only meeting the global responsibility of Islam and Christianity, but also fulfilling our God-given mandate to witness, each in our own contexts, to God's salvation and God's peace for the entire world."

• German language Protestant congregation in Turkey (in German) .
• Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.