Visit from South Africa
During his visit to the regional synod of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck, the newly elected bishop of the Western Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA WD (Western Diocese)), Neo Elias Mogorosi, made a stop at the ELM.
Also present were the new Partnership and Finance Officer Lebo Nkete and the Chairperson of the Christian Fellowship League, Damara Lydia Magano. In the morning, the delegation visited the ELM's branch office in Hanover, the Office for International Church Cooperation (BikZ). There they met other guests: Superintendent (Dean) Karl-Ludwig Schmidt and Pastor Matthias Grießhammer (for the Herrenhausen partnership) had a lively discussion about politics and society in South Africa and Germany. The guests from ELCSA WD were particularly pleased to see Rev Anne Matthys again. Matthys has been the ELM's ecumenical exchange pastor since October 1 and was nominated for the exchange by Bishop Mogorosi.
In the afternoon, they continued to the ELM headquarters in Hermannsburg, where the ELM's public relations team used the time before coffee with ELM Director Emmanuel Kileo for an interview and a short video. Here are notes of part of the conversation:
Editor: Please describe for us the last time you were truly grateful to be a member of ELCSA WD. What is the strength of the ELCSA WD?
Bishop Mogorosi: The ELCSA WD has accompanied me throughout my life and I am very grateful. I was involved in the church when I was an prefect in the mission school and also when I graduated from high school and then I just kept going.
It's great in the ELCSA WD. Almost everyone is involved somewhere, be it in the sunday school or in the various Leagues. The Leagues have a strong and inclusive influence on the makeup of the church and often key positions in the church are filled from within the Leagues.
Editor: What are currently the most pressing issues in society that the ELCSA WD is addressing?
Mrs. Magano: There are always social issues and the political instability of the country also affects us as a church. In addition, social diseases such as AIDS are an issue, we are talking about a second wave, and gender-based violence is a big issue, as is LGBTQIA+. We are an inclusive church, but the people for whom LGBTQIA+ is an issue do not find their way to us. We want to change that. We are currently building a trauma center with six rooms, a center that is there for victims of sexual violence throughout the diocese.
Lebo Nkete: As a church, we are in a situation where we have quite a lot of properties and land. But we have to ask ourselves what we do with it? How do we use what we have sensibly for the congregations in such a way that it also brings in money if possible? We have several ideas and concrete plans for which we are looking for support. We are thinking, for example, of residential and teaching rooms for theological training.
Bishop Mogorosi: In terms of theological training, we have eight women in mind who should also have a place to study in the seminary. We are very interested in training women as pastors.
Editor: The membership figures of the Protestant Church in Germany have been falling steadily for 50 years, a decline that has reached its peak in the last ten years. How are your church membership figures developing? Have the COVID lockdowns had lasting consequences?
Bishop Mogorosi: We have not yet recovered from the effects of COVID. Also, young people are very mobile, they don't just move around in their home community. They may be in their home congregation during holidays.
Nationwide, church membership figures are also falling here, although perhaps not as drastically as in your country. Youth unemployment is extremely high here. One of the consequences of this is that young people hardly leave the house, let alone go to church. It also leads to a drop in offerings at Sunday services and we finance the pastors' salaries from the Sunday offerings.
Lebo Nkete: As a church, we have to look to the future: What will we be doing in 20 years' time? To do this, the decision-makers in the churches need to listen to the youth and their concerns. The youth are organized in youth leagues, their leaders are capable of speaking and must be accepted as an important voice, especially when it comes to issues such as sexual abuse or patriarchal structures.
