Editorials
Day of Prayer and Repentance - Restoring Moderation
Bishops underscore relevance for society and call for change of focus
November 18, 2009
On the occasion of the Day of Prayer and Repentance, Protestant bishops issued a call for reflection and a change of focus. EKD Council chairperson Bishop Margot Kässmann, proposed that people pause to reflect. Referring to the suicide of national soccer team goalkeeper Robert Enke, she called in her sermon in the Marktkirche in Hanover for abandoning the achievement and performance-seeking mentality that only "values strength, beauty and success." Instead, what matters is to allow others the right to show and utilize their strengths, but also to have weaknesses. Feelings such as lightness, humor, joie de vivre and a life-positive attitude, says Kässmann, are all part of daily existence. Society must realize that "humans are not perfect beings." On Wednesday last week, the Council chairperson presided a memorial service for Robert Enke that received nationwide attention.
Other prominent Protestant clergy members used this day of prayer and repentance to highlight certain challenges. In light of the impact of the economic and financial crisis on the labor market, EKD deputy chairperson and "Präses" of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland Nikolaus Schneider, jointly with the Catholic bishop of Trier Stephan Ackermann, called upon the government to protect the most vulnerable. The political management of the crisis must place greater emphasis on the social aspect, they declared in their statement for Day of Prayer and Repentance. Schneider and Ackermann warned moreover that social peace in Germany was threatened. "We must strike a new balance between economic and social needs," they said. If this is achieved, it will be possible to "overcome the crisis while preserving the social market economy."
In Stuttgart, Bishop Frank Otfried July of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg said that international politics had also to take into account the spiritual and ethical dimensions. He warned of using the day of repentance to primarily point a finger at others. The day is an opportunity to seek out the blind spots in one's own life. "In this way people can return to moderation and avert excess."
According to Bishop Martin Hein from Hessen, the biblical command to love one's neighbor and the Ten Commandments are reliable guides. He added that is a "great Christian promise" that every person can come to God with his or her guilt and be forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. In the wake of the economic and financial crisis, the sense of economic security has rapidly shrunk. November, in particular, reminds humankind of the transientness of life. The churches of Bavaria and Hessen launched the prayer and repentance day theme under the title "What still counts?" At www.busstag.de are to be found inspirational materials and a worship service plan as well as event announcements and other resources. Bishop Hein will be available on Thursday 19 November from 8-9 pm for a chat around the theme of the campaign.
For Protestants, the day of Prayer and Repentance is a day of reflection. It was celebrated for the first time in 1532 in Strasburg. Christians attend worship services and ask themselves how they can transform their lives to meet the calling of the gospel. Failures and guilt, omissions and wrong decisions are laid before God. This liberating gesture brings consolation and hope. Eucharist is celebrated in many congregations as a sign of reconciliation with God. For many years, the Day of Prayer and Repentance was an official bank holiday in Germany. In 1995 it was done away with throughout the country, except in Saxony, in order to finance the nursing care insurance scheme.