The head of the Secretariat of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) – President Dr Wilhelm Hüffmeier of Berlin, has stated his expectations for the upcoming General Assembly.

|PIC1|In an interview he commented that his hope was for a “clear Yes to more committed collaboration from the Reformation churches of Europe” – theological, structural and financial.

“There is no alternative,” said Dr Hüffmeier in the interview.

The Sixth General Assembly of the CPCE will meet in Budapest from 12 to 18 September with the theme ‘Strengthening Community – the Profile of Protestantism in Europe’.

It will be presented with the recommendation that the Secretariat should be moved to Vienna, as current President Hüffmeier is retiring at the end of the year.

Since 1987 he has been the director of the CPCE Secretariat in addition to his office as Oberkirchenrat (since 1995 president) of the head office of the Evangelical Church of the Union (now the Union of Evangelical Churches).

The full interview with Dr Hüffmeier is shown below:

Dr Hüffmeier, you have been head of the CPCE Secretariat for 19 years and will soon be retiring. The General Assembly in Budapest will be presented with the recommendation that the Secretariat should be moved to Vienna. What is your personal view of the work of the CPCE at this time?

|TOP|Wilhelm Hüffmeier: The CPCE has grown in numbers and gained in theological profile. I’m glad about that. When I began as Secretary in 1987, 80 churches had signed the Leuenberg Agreement; today there are 105, including the Methodist churches of Europe and also the Lutheran churches in Denmark and Norway. It pains me that the Swedes, the Finns and the Icelanders are absent.

The so-called doctrinal conversations have produced a clarification of the theological profile. They are an indication of the great importance of theology for the CPCE. Here I am thinking particularly of the documents ‘The Church of Jesus Christ’ and ‘Church and Israel’. The key statement in ‘The Church of Jesus Christ’ that the experience of Christ is always the experience of freedom and the responsibility of faith is decisive here. This freedom also offers the possibility of shaping the churches in different ways, provided that they are agreed over the central concern, namely to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments in accordance with the gospel. We Protestants stand for the church of freedom of faith.

The last General Assembly called for the Protestant voice in Europe to be strengthened. Has this aim been achieved?

Wilhelm Hüffmeier: Yes and no. But first, what does strengthening the Protestant voice in Europe mean? Does it mean unanimity, the kind of unanimity which is guaranteed in the Roman Catholic Church by the office of the Pope? That would not be Protestant. Protestantism also means many voices – in a very positive sense. Then does it mean that Protestantism can be recognized in the public scene and in the media? We should probably acknowledge that Protestant is not present in the European public scene. But what is the European public scene? Aren’t there different publics? I can say from a German perspective, but also from the perspective of other countries, that the Protestant voice is present and is being heard. It is a task of the CPCE that we should understand one another better and better and agree where and in what way we want to be present. To this end we have worked very hard on a network of communication. But in the CPCE we have also spoken pointedly on the EU Constitution, and on freedom of the press and of opinion in connection with the cartoons dispute.

|AD|What do you expect from the General Assembly in Budapest?

Wilhelm Hüffmeier: I expect and hope for a clear Yes to more committed collaboration between the Reformation churches in Europe – theological, structural and financial. I know that that will not be simple. The financial resources of the churches are diminishing. For some churches their confessional obligations or involvement in the Conference of European Churches have priority. However, in my view there is no alternative to more committed collaboration between the Reformation churches in Europe. We belong together by virtue of our roots in the Bible and the Reformation.

What, in your view, are the future tasks of the CPCE?

Wilhelm Hüffmeier: In the future, agreements with the Reformation churches which do not belong to the CPCE, i.e. the European Anglicans and the Lutherans in Sweden, Finland and Iceland, and the Baptists, will be important. Both are difficult tasks, but they are unavoidable. In addition, it is time to make contact with Pentecostals and other evangelical churches and with the Roman Catholic Church. As for the Orthodox churches, we must simply take more notice of them and understand and respect them. Here everything depends on reciprocity. Ecclesiological pride (‘ecclesiology’ is the doctrine of the church) is as great an enemy of ecumenical relations as is fear of the working of the Holy Spirit. In the strength of this Spirit we have already come much closer together than many church leaders concede.

In past years the CPCE has intensified the dialogue with Anglicans, Orthodox and Baptists. What is the aim of these conversations?

Wilhelm Hüffmeier: With the Anglicans I would like to work out a kind of European Meissen. In my time conversations already aimed at that, but they got stuck. The dialogue with the representatives of Orthodoxy has happily steadied itself after a hesitant start. That is a good ecumenical signal. The dialogue could lead to the recommendation of a reciprocal recognition of baptism. The question of baptism is also at the centre of the conversations with the Baptists. Here the conflicting positions must be toned down further so that Baptists recognize in some form that infant baptism without the immediate presence of faith in the one being baptized also has a value, the value of the greater promise. On the other hand, those of us who baptize infants must learn that baptism without faith is deficient; it is nonsense. Couldn’t the Baptists concede that when faith comes, baptism has what it aims at? Couldn’t they then also accept the validity of a baptism which is inappropriate in their eyes and dispense with what in our view is rebaptism? If this could be achieved, then in our view there would no longer be anything in the way of full church communion.


[Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted by Udo Hahn]