News
A selection of news relevant to EKD and of press releases of EKD's partner churches and church bodies. News used with permission from Ecumenical News International and other agencies.
Action Reconciliation Commemorates First Summer Camp 50 Years Ago
April 18, 2012
At an international gathering held in Magdeburg, Action Reconciliation/Service for Peace (ARSP) commemorated the launch of its summer camp campaign 50 years ago. The highlight of the event will be a festive service of worship attended by the chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) Nikolaus Schneider, on April 29 in the city on the Elbe's cathedral, the ARSP announced in Berlin on Wednesday. Since 1962 around 15,000 volunteers have participated in over 1000 camps in nearly all of Europe.
The camps owe their origin to a group of 70 young men and women who gathered in Magdeburg in mid-1962 to help clear the rubble of churches that had been destroyed during World War II. The peace service "Action Reconciliation" had been created in 1958 by the EKD Synod. Its creation was mainly inspired by the appeal by Lothar Kreyssig (1898-1986), who, after the war, was consistory president and provost ("praeses") in Magdeburg of the then ecclesiastical province of Saxony.
One of the 27 to 29 April gathering's goals is to exchange experiences and to reflect on civil disobedience, the international understanding of various political systems and advocacy for democracy, the ARSP stated.
The festive worship service with EKD Council chair Schneider on April 29 in Magdeburg cathedral begins at 10 a.m.