Isabel Friemann, China InfoStelle
Translated by Anna Clart
Blessed and thankful – that’s how the participants of the Third Interreligious Consultation parted ways on the 8th of May. The event was celebrated as a great success from all sides, with the intention of continuing this format in the future clearly expressed. Rev. Dr. Eckhard Zemmrich, from the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW), and Rev. Ute Hedrich, from the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland – EKD), had directed the conference’s preparation and issued the invitation to the Chinese side. The umbrella organizations of the Protestant church in China, the China Christian Council (CCC) and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), from the beginning of the planning were closely involved in the conception and talks about the contents of the consultation.
Background
The National Religious Affairs Administration had supported the idea of a first interreligious consultation in Hamburg and Berlin, which was achieved in 2016. This was sparked by the observation that German churches were offering services to Muslim refugees and the question of how well different religions were coexisting in Germany, as well as by a 2015 conversation that took place in Berlin, between the person then serving as the EMW’s Asia desk officer and an official of the National Religious Affairs Administration. For this first consultation, the Chinese delegation comprised 21 participants: six representatives of the National Religious Affairs Administration, five from CCC/TSPM, three Catholics, five Muslims, and two religious studies scholars. After the positive experiences of the first consultation, CCC/TSPM issued a reciprocal invitation to Shanghai in 2018; alongside representatives of the EKD and EMW, the sixteen people who accepted included a series of religious studies scholars as well as the director of the China-Zentrum, two German Muslims, and a member of the German Foreign Office. This second consultation was placed under the motto “Different Religions – A Shared Future.” A planned third consultation, which was to take place in Germany, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s successful continuation of these events – after staff changes, religious-political shifts in China, a more critical image of China in Germany, and generally scanter resources – is a vital sign of the importance of friendly exchange and the continuation of official relations in the religious field between both countries. Financially, the EKD’s and EMW’s contributions were generously supplemented by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany; the staff involved came, among other places, from the China-Zentrum and the China InfoStelle. The delegation included five representatives of CCC/TSPM, one representative of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a Deputy President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, a representative of the Chinese Islamic Association, a religious studies scholar, and an official of the United Front Department responsible for religious-political subjects. Two further participants were a female Protestant architect and a Protestant papercutting artist. Would all 12 Chinese participants manage to receive their visas in time? The surrounding trepidation felt like it lasted to the very last day. Yet the joy when it all worked out was so much the greater.
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