What is ordination good for? Preachers reflected on their role in a changing world
What is the role of ministers and preachers in today’s world, in the first quarter of the 21st century? How to face the challenges of the present day, such as the decline in members of Christian churches or the growing influence of social networks? How to preach the Gospel of Christ in a world where mutual understanding is more and more rare and polarisation is growing, conflicts are on the rise and the economic scissors between social strata are opening wider?
Those were some of the questions that the approximately 200 participants – ministers and preachers of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, guests from the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, the Roman Catholic Church as well as from churches in Germany, Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia – asked themselves and their guests from Germany, the Netherlands and the United States of America at this year’s pastoral course that took place in the last week of January. The course is organized by the Society of Protestant Preachers (SPP).
The speakers included Professor Tomáš Petráček from the University of Hradec Králové, Professor Kerstin Menzel from the University of Leipzig, German Reformed theologian Gerard Minaard and Professor Klara Butting from the University of Bochum. The practical Bibliodrama workshops of Mirei Ryskova, the meditation seminar of Pavel Poly and the seminar on mental health with psychotherapist Ráchel Bícová also attracted great attention. The theatre play called „Eugene – Friend of Women“, performed by the Theatre of the Oppressed, was excellent, inspiring, and provocative at the same time.
„In 2023, we were dealing with the Christian reaction to the ongoing ecological crisis, so basically a global topic. This year, we went for a more introspective approach, taking a deeper look at the core of our work in the church. There was a clear interest in the topic. It is very important to have the chance look at ourselves, together, with the possibility of perspective and distance,“ says Michael Pfann, minister of the ECCB in Vrchlabí and chairman of the SPP committee.
The course started with a worship service at the church of Martin in the Wall. The service included a church collection and its organizers decided to use the final proceeds of over 16,000 CZK to support the humanitarian activities of the Society for South Sudan in this African country.
The Society of Protestant Preachers, which organises the annual pastoral course, was founded at the turn of 1989 and 1990 as a continuation of previous Protestant clergy organisations – the Society of Protestant Clergy of Czech Nationality (1904), the Society of Czech Brethren Clergy (1922) and the Society of Czech Brethren Protestant Clergy (1951), which was banned in 1974.
Jakub Kašpar