Role of faith, prayer in opening of Berlin Wall underscored

By Stephen Brown

Ecumenical leaders believe that prayer and a commitment to peaceful change helped open the Berlin Wall 20 years ago without bloodshed.

Archdeacon Colin Williams, general secretary of the Conference of European Churches, on 9 November underscored the role played by Christians and churches in the events of 1989, with "patient, determined, brave prayer" for peace, justice and the integrity of creation.

"The scenes of joy which followed the opening of the Berlin Wall expressed a joy which was felt across Europe as walls, which had separated individuals from individuals, families from families, nations from nations, began to break open," said Williams.

The first freely-elected government in East Germany donated two sections of the Berlin Wall to CEC in recognition of its role in Eastern Europe, Williams noted in a letter to Bishop Margot Kässmann, who heads the Evangelical Church in Germany, the main grouping of Protestant churches in the country.

Staff members from CEC, the World Council of Churches and other organizations at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva gathered at those sections of the Berlin Wall on 9 November to remember and give thanks for the "breaking down of barriers in Europe as a whole".

World Council of Churches' general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, paid tribute to those who had gathered in churches in East Germany to call for reform and change.

"They taught us that Christian faith can inspire a resistance movement against fatalism and despair - a lesson which is as important today as it was 20 years ago," said Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya, noting that there are "still many walls separating humankind".

He pointed to the "Demilitarized Zone" between North and South Korea, the "Security Wall" on the occupied territory in Palestine, but also to the walls of injustice, racism and prejudice that separate rich and poor, stigmatise persons suffering from HIV and AIDS and destroy the lives of many people.

Former WCC general secretary, the Rev. Konrad Raiser, noted in an article distributed by the WCC how the events in East Germany of 1989 were to have a wide and long lasting impact, as would events in places such as South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was released from jail three months after the Berlin Wall opened.

These transformations, said Raiser, a Protestant theologian from Germany, "had come so suddenly that neither governments nor the churches were sufficiently prepared for the new situation".

In many places, Raiser added, "this led to sharp internal struggles, especially between those involved in or complicit with the former system, and those who had struggled for liberty, justice and human rights".

Ecumenical organizations also came under scrutiny because of their links with representatives of the former communist system and their lack of "effective support for the struggles of dissident movements", noted Raiser, WCC general secretary from 1993 to 2003.