Ethics · Society · Theology · Mission · Sociology of Religions
70 years ago, on August 23, 1948, the World Council of Churches (WCC) was founded. The theologian Thomas Schirrmacher talks about the history of the “World Council of Churches”, why Catholics are not members – and why he sees a missionary departure also in Germany.
Interviews with Thomas Schirrmacher
Prof. Dr. phil. h.c. Moritz Hunzinger, Member of the Supervisory Board of the National Pedagogical University named after MP Drahomanova, together with the rector of the teaching and methodological work of the humanities faculty, Prof. Igor Vetrov, and the dean, Prof. Vladimir Evtukh, former minister and ambassador, visited the Christmas reception, which was organized by His Holiness, the Patriarch of Kyiv and All Russia-Ukraine Filaret. A representative of the German religious leaders was Bishop Prof. Dr. theol Thomas Schirrmacher, who was invited by Professor Moritz Hunzinger to Kiev.
Due to the criticism, that he had abandoned the doctrinal foundations of the Christian faith in favour of a purely experiential religion in a speech given in Bogotá at the Global Christian Forum, the Associate Secretary-General for Theological Concerns of the World Evangelical Alliance, Thomas Schirrmacher, has now made his speech available to the public in German and in English language.
Christians are called to take up together the challenges of peace, unity, and costly discipleship the Global Christian Forum has said in a 27 April closing message to the churches of the world sent from Bogotá, Colombia.
As was announced only now due to security reasons, the Syrian-Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II and the Associate Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, Bishop Thomas Schirrmacher, two days before Christmas 2017 addressed the highest Muslim leaders of 40 countries and called upon them to protect their Christian minorities.
My article on „Christian Witness in a multi-religious World“ (2011) in the magazine of the Protestant Association of Germany (Evangelischer Bund) is currently only available in German.