Evangelical Church in Germany Synod Meets in Würzburg, Germany, as Anna-Nicole Heinrich Leaves Presidency

The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) is holding its synod in Würzburg, and Anna-Nicole Heinrich is leading it for the last time as president, according to a report from mainpost.de. She is not taking part in the re-election. The synod meets from the weekend onward, and associated member churches are holding their own synods at the same time in the Congress Centrum Würzburg.

A second report, from sonntagsblatt.de, describes the EKD Synod annual meeting as focused on democracy and says it began on a Sunday. That report names Kirsten Fehrs as EKD President and does not mention Heinrich. The two reports therefore differ on who holds the church’s top office, and the reports do not explain the difference between the roles.

According to sonntagsblatt.de, Fehrs said that human hostility is incompatible with the Gospel, a call to live at peace with others (Romans 12:18). She did not name the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in those remarks. Fehrs also said that völkisch nationalism and anti-Semitism are incompatible with the biblical message.

The report links these statements to a recent election in Saxony-Anhalt. A far-right party was elected to the presidency of the state parliament for the first time in more than 80 years, and the report identifies the party as the AfD and its representative as Tobias Rausch. The EKD Council chairmen, the report says, expressed sympathy for public authorities that are considering a procedure to ban the AfD. They left open whether the EKD itself supports such a procedure.

Fehrs demanded that people who publicly represent inhumane attitudes should not hold church offices or functions, according to the same report. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Catholic Bishop Franz Jung of Würzburg also addressed the synod on rising hostility and social polarization.