Consultations with partners
From 19 to 20 March the Evangelical-Augsburg Church organised consultations with its partner churches and organisations from Germany, which support minority churches.
The guests included representatives of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Martin Luther-Bund and the Gustav-Adolf Werk.
The aim of the meeting was to evaluate projects implemented in cooperation with the above mentioned organizations and to discuss the shape of future partnership relations.
During the talks, the following projects were discussed: publication of a German translation of Polska. Bedeker Ewangelicki [Poland. Evangelical Bedecker], creation of a church archive in the Lutheran Centre, a mediation and counselling centre and a workshop to help Lutheran congregations understand the situation of refugees. Building projects were discussed as well, in particular the extension of the parish centre in Bialystok, which the Church submitted to the Gustav-Adolf-Werk project catalogue for 2019.
Some of the discussions were devoted to the current situation and challenges facing our Churches. Participants of the consultation also met with the Rector of the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw and visited the new building of the Academy. Many conversations with our foreign partners addressed the subject of calling and willingness of the young generation to study theology. The problem of ensuring high quality of education is most acute in small churches, which makes it all the more important to share experiences on the solutions applied in different contexts and countries.
The participants of the meeting declared their willingness to continue with such consultations, recognising that exchange of ideas and open discussion on mutual relations and levels of cooperation with all partners foster trust-building and better communication.