Dear visitors,
I am pleased to introduce you to the diverse work of our Centre for Global Ministry and Ecumenical Relations – Northern Church Worldwide through our website. What do we do in this Centre and what challenges do we face here?
First of all, one of our core tasks is to coordinate and manage the various relationships of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Nordkirche) with international partners. We therefore often refer to ourselves as the foreign ministry of our Church. In addition to cooperating with church partners, we also work closely with a variety of worldwide active organizations in various fields. In our globally interconnected world, we cannot look in regional isolation at issues such as social and economic justice, the effects of climate change, human rights and also our being Christians and reflecting on our faith.
In our time being everything is related to everything else and challenges us to develop positions and strategies on many individual issues. It is true that effects of the various changes in our world are not the same everywhere, but only if we seek to grasp a situation in its entirety, we can work on it together. To do this, we need and seek encounters and exchange with our partners in Germany and around the world.
The two locations of the Centre for Global Ministry and Ecumenical Relations – North Church worldwide – have been characterized by people developing and implementing visions ever since they were founded. The first missionaries who were sent out from the small North Frisian town of Breklum to India and China – despite all the justified criticism today – dared to follow their call and make good things happen.
When about 100 years ago a home for missionaries’ children was built in Hamburg on Agathe-Lasch-Weg it also broke new ground at that time by looking after and educating the children of missionary families. Today we live in the responsibility that this historical legacy means, freely according to 1 Thess 5,21: Test everything. Hold on to the good.
For this reason, we see it as our responsibility to work with our partners at home and abroad for peace, justice and the integrity of creation. We report and inform you about these activities on our website. Thank you for visiting!
Sincerely Director Pastor Dr Christian Wollmann
