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Dear readers of the English version of our newsletter, from now on you can also have the ELM website automatically translated into English and other languages. Please use the small selection box at the top right of our website.

Will I see you at the Hermannsburg Mission Festival this weekend? I look forward to continuing the dialogue with many of you and to shape the path into the future together - also in view of the 175th anniversary of ELM this year.

We do this in the knowledge that there is always a past before the future. This is made clear in two articles in this newsletter:

The independent review commission of the regional church of Hanover on Klaus Vollmer depends on reports from people who were affected by abusive behaviour or knew about it. Their experiences and/or observations should be noted and processed. This is a further and now final appeal.

In Hanover, I took part in a podium discussion on the return of human remains of Tanzanian people, remains that were in the past exhibited in German museums and must be returned to the Tanzanian state. Minister of State Katja Keul was another panelist. As a citizen of this country, but also as a theologian, I emphasised that there can be no quick reparations. However, it is important to facilitate encounters that create a new awareness of the atrocities committed by the colonial powers.

Facilitating encounters: We at ELM see this as our calling and want to convey hope. For example, on a joint walk through Hanover-Linden with Pastor Ntuthuko Nkosi from Durban, South Africa, and Oliver Schlicht, Pastor of the Hanover Gospel Church. Together they explored the neighbourhood, shared their thoughts and discovered similarities.

I look forward to many encounters at the Mission Festival.

Yours in Christ,
Dr Emmanuel Kileo

Phone +49 (0)5052 69-235
d.freudenthal(at)elm-mission(dot)net

Dirk Freudenthal
Editor-in-Chief