Topic overview:

• Editorial
• 50th anniversary of the Leuenberg Agreement
• From the Presidum 
  
• From the member churches 
  
• General Assemblies
• Announcements 

We are taking the anniversary of the Leuenberg Agreement as an opportunity to conduct interviews with various people who give us their views on the significance of the Leuenberg Agreement. We start with CPCE Council member Dr Klára Tarr Cselovsky  and Prof. Michael Weinrich, who will give the opening lecture at the conference "Being Church Together" in Debrecen this week.

In 45 minutes, the documentary explores the question of what distinguishes and connects Lutheran, Reformed and United churches. Three pastors of the respective churches meet each other. It becomes clear that the Leuenberg Agreement made fellowship possible, overcoming the differences without abolishing them. The church historian Professor Thomas Kaufmann and Margot Käßmann, the former chairperson of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany, interpret these developments. The film was produced in German by Bibel TV and is available for free in the Mediathek.

On February 17-18, 2023, the 67th European Conference on Ecumenical Studies was held at the Protestant Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Bensheim (Germany). The focus was on the Leuenberg Agreement and the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe in their theological, but also political-societal significance, in their potentials and limitations. People from different confessional traditions and from seven countries participated in the discussion.

In 2024 the General Assembly will decide which course the CPCE will set for the coming years, so that the train of our church communion will continue to travel well. The CPCE Presidium met in January for a closed meeting in Vienna. The strategic reflections of the Presidium should not only serve to identify future work processes and focal points, but also to raise awareness about the core competences of CPCE and to give the Council and the Secretariat sufficient freedom to be able to react to current challenges.

On Sunday 22 January 2023, the previous episcopal visitator Rolf Bareis was installed as bishop in Tbilisi. On this occasion, representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia and the Southern Caucasus (ELCG), which has just about 500 members, came together to express their blessing in prayer and conversation. On behalf of the CPCE head office Rev. Dr Stefan Cosoroaba took part in the bishop’s introduction.

CPCE invited the delegates of the CPCE member churches to the General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) to a pre-meeting organised by CEC. Thirty-two ecumenical officers and representatives of their churches met from 6-8 February 2023 in Brussels, where they explored the role of the churches and public theology—and how CEC’s programmes can strengthen that role in the future.

The CPCE is participating in the “Kirchentag” in Nürnberg and is already looking forward to numerous visitors, new impressions and interesting conversations. At a joint stand with the Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) the CPCE will present itself at the “Markt der Möglichkeiten” in the area of “Ökumene”. Further details on this and the planned events will follow at a later date.

The European Baptist Federation (EBF) and the International Baptist Theological Study Centre (IBTS) are offering a training of trainers course in Freedom of Religion or Belief for All (FoRB). The course takes a human rights based approach to FoRB and will equip participants with the tools necessary to become trainers and advocates for FoRB in their context. This course is ideally suited to lawyers, trainers, pastors and researchers and will have specific tracks for trainers, advocates and practitioners. The training is a 12-week online course in English beginning on March 6th, 2023. Course costs are 300 Euros with some scholarships available. You can find more details about the Training here:

The Committee for Interreligious and Interconvictional Dialogue organises a Webinar on "The fundamental importance of education for interreligious & Interconvictional dialogue" on Monday 27 March 2023 at 17:00 via zoom.

The webinar will explore the question of how effective education and training are in helping people to understand each other's values and attitudes, and the emotions that are connected to them in the many forms of interreligious and Interconvictional dialogue groups that already exist.

The CPCE has submitted its application for participatory status to the Council of Europe and will participate in this committee.