The supreme governing body of Germany’s second-largest state church will be advising on the main topic of education and numerous bills and church laws until next Friday, and the budget will also be passed.
Lifelong learning is Jesus
The value of religious education was emphasized in the opening service. Lifelong learning and gaining experience corresponds to the life and actions of Jesus, it was said: after his baptism and desert experience, he traveled as an itinerant preacher, met people in their homes and had communion and sent his disciples to all nations. Pupils from five schools of the Rhenish Church in Aachen, Bonn, Dierdorf, Düsseldorf and Hilden took part in the service.
After two years of corona-related online meetings, the annual meeting of the church parliament is taking place again – for the first time in the 75-year history of the state synod in Düsseldorf. Since 1975, around 200 representatives of the 37 Rhenish church districts have met in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, which was badly hit by the flood disaster in summer 2021.
Prime Minister Wüst as a guest
Ruhr Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck was expected as a guest at the start of the synod on Sunday evening, on Monday Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst (CDU) spoke to the 199 synod members. Then it goes under the heading “Sensitive to diversity, open to God – Education. Evangelical. Free.” around the main topic of education. On Tuesday, the leading theologian of the Rhenish church, President Thorsten Latzel, will present his report on important events in church and society.
With 627 parishes and around 2.27 million members, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is the second largest member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). The Rhenish church area includes parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Saarland.
