Topic Overview:

• Editorial
  
• Advent Greetings for the Middle East

• General Assembly 2024

• 50th Anniversary of the Leuenberg Agreement

• Council of Europe

• From the Member Churches

• News from the Head Office

• Events

The CPCE leadership has sent a letter of solidarity to the member churches of the Fellowship of the Middle East Evangelical Churches for Advent and Christmas assuring that they will continue to pray for them and work to ensure that their experiences and thoughts are also heard in Europe.

On 16 January 2024 the steward programme of the CPCE General Assembly in Sibiu/Hermannstadt will be announced. Students and graduates (18 - 28 years) interested in church issues are invited to apply. The programme itself is scheduled between 22 August and 3 September 2024. Here, young people will not only be assigned to practical work, but they will also have the chance to get to know the ecumenical movement, the region and the Assembly topics in a workshop component.

Following the conclusion of General Assemblies, it has become standard practice for CPCE to release a book documenting the work done in the previous working period, the speeches and lectures given by special guests of the General Assembly, a report on the proceedings of the Assembly, and much more. The 7th General Assembly of the CPCE took place in September 2012 in Florence and the 8th took place in Basel in 2018.

The documentation of both of these General Assemblies appears in both German and English, in two books, one related to Florence and the other to Basel.

These texts provide an excellent view into the workings of a CPCE General Assembly and context about the current CPCE working processes. We are pleased to announce a special offer for both of these books.

Beginning on January 1, 2024, “Free for the Future” and “Liberated-Connected-Committed” will be offered for the package price of 40 Euros. If you would like to purchase each book individually, you can do so for 25 Euros each.

The books can be ordered from the CPCE online shop:

Despite all the appreciation of the Leuenberg Agreement, there is still criticism of the Agreement to this day. A symposium on November 24 in Göttingen was dedicated to the questions from a Reformed, Free Church, and Lutheran perspective.

The anniversary year of the Leuenberg Agreement was a great success. It was celebrated in many churches and at many theological institutions and encouraged people to think critically and creatively about the concerns and potential of the Leuenberg Agreement for the future. General Secretary Mario Fischer takes a first look back at the year.

In November 2023, the CPCE was granted participatory status as an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) by the Council of Europe. This was in response to an application submitted by the CPCE in February 2023. As a regional group of the CPCE, the Conference of Churches on the Rhine (CCR) is to organise its work with and towards the Council of Europe in consultation with the CPCE Council and head office.

The two-volume collection “Being Church Together” brings to the Estonian reader a selection of the most important results of the doctrinal conversations and theological study processes of recent decades from the context of the global communion of Lutheran churches (LWF), the CPCE and the Porvoo Communion.

The Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. in Austria elected Ingrid Monjencs as the new Synod President. This is the first time in the history of the Protestant Church in Austria that a woman has headed the synod. Ingrid Monjencs, BTh, worked for the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) in Vienna as a public relations and finance officer from 2011 until her retirement at the end of 2022. "We wholeheartedly congratulate Ingrid Monjencs: rooted in the congregation and church, she brings experience from the life of the diverse churches in Europe, theological and economic expertise and an awareness of social and public processes to the position. This can only be of benefit!" explained CPCE General Secretary Mario Fischer.

Representatives of CoGREE (Coordinating Group for Religion in Education in Europe) met in Vienna in December and visited the CPCE office. CoGREE brings together six organisations that deal with religious education and religion courses in Europe. During the meeting, common interests and opportunities for co-operation in the field of education were discussed.

Why should a modern society still need religion? In his book "Democracy needs religion", sociologist Hartmut Rosa explores precisely this question. He looks at today's democratic societies, whose economic systems are geared towards constant growth. At the same time, everyday life is becoming increasingly hectic for many people. What means does religion have to break out of this cycle? The participants ask themselves these questions and take time to look for answers in biblical texts.

The Bible dialogue includes two 90-minute Zoom meetings on each of the three days, starting at 5 pm. Participation in the online Bible dialogue is free of charge, but please register in advance.