Manfred Froese received the Concordia Medal 2020 for his many decades of voluntary work. It was traditionally awarded on Reformation Day in the CityKirche Concordia. “Nothing works in the church without volunteering,” writes the Evangelical Church in a press release. This commitment has been honored with the Concord Medal for more than 15 years. Last year Marie-Luise Albrecht was honored by the former Paul Gerhardt congregation and in 2018 Herbert Propfe by the Johannis congregation, now Manfred Froese.
Froese, who has been in retirement since 2011, is known to many in Mannheim as a former member of the municipal council (1989 to 1999) and as managing director of the Mannheim community diakonia (1978 to 2011). He receives the honor for his voluntary work in the church, which has already accompanied his professional activity. The focus is on the field of diakonia, interreligious dialogue and education.
“My commitment largely consists of giving impulses that promote cooperation,” says Froese. From 2006 to 2019 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, and since 2013 he has been the chairman of the school committee of the Bach grammar school. For schools in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, Froese brought the Abraham Cup, which was awarded for the first time in 2001, with him.
“The interreligious dialogue is particularly important to me,” emphasizes Froese, who has been chairman of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Rhein-Neckar and a member of the advisory board of the Mannheim Institute for Integration and Interreligious Dialogue since 2000. He has been working in the Forum of Religions in Mannheim since 2015. “We have to know about each other,” he says, “because this is the only way to ensure that we understand each other”.
Froese has been a member of the EKD Synod since 2014 as the elected representative of the Baden Regional Church and as a member of the Diakonie, Education, Youth Committee. red / bhr
© Mannheimer Morgen, Monday, November 2nd, 2020
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