The sky is open and wide ”: This church day song, which was played on Sunday at the Weseler shipyard on Frankfurt's bank of the Main, almost had what it takes to become an unofficial hymn on this sometimes rainy weekend.

The third Ecumenical Church Day (ÖKT) in Frankfurt, after Berlin in 2003 and Munich in 2010, came to a close on Sunday morning with a large open-air service.

Martin Benninghoff

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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    Shortly before the beginning of the service, when dark clouds were gathering again, the church day helpers distributed plastic rain ponchos. Many spectators - only 400 were allowed due to the pandemic - opened their umbrellas, a few squeezed under the small canopy of the sound mixer. Hard-core believers braved the rain and clapped along. They were not allowed to sing along because of the corona requirements. Only the clergy who were to lead the service, Limburg's Bishop Georg Bätzing, Volker Jung, the church president of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, and the Greek Orthodox archpriest Radu Constantin Miron, stayed dry under the stage roof.

    The guests, including the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) and Frankfurt's Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD), had also come to hear Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had traveled to Frankfurt with his wife Elke Büdenbender. In his speech, the Federal President immediately addressed the current topic of the day, the Middle East conflict and the flare-up of anti-Semitism in Germany: "Let us counter this hatred together."

    Steinmeier also addressed the social upheaval as a result of the corona pandemic. For many people, patience is exhausted, and deep cracks run through society. We have to build bridges again "between people and groups that the pandemic has made enemies". Healing these wounds means rapprochement, "where we have become strangers," said the Federal President, who was not deterred by the rain that pelted the stage roof. “The process of social reconciliation will take longer than the 15 months that lie behind us.” Already on Friday, during the ceremony, Steinmeier told the churches about the “excruciatingly slow uncovering and coming to terms” of the abuse scandals and the “crimes against the The weakest among us, children and adolescents ”.

    The abuse cases were one of the topics of the around 100 mostly digital events of the Kirchentag. The Bible studies and podiums on topics such as climate change - Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer discussed here - or peace policy were largely pre-produced. In the case of the anti-Semitism debate, this turned out to be a disadvantage because of current developments. Even the celebratory event on Friday evening in the congress center of the Frankfurt trade fair had to take place without an audience, but could at least be broadcast live. Around a million people watched the Ascension Service on Thursday, and the organizers counted around 160,000 visitors to their website. Around 100 full-time employees have prepared the ÖKT,the budget is said to have remained below 18 million euros.

    Some services on Saturday evening were central to the program, to which even visitors were allowed in limited numbers. Catholic, Protestant, Free Church and Orthodox Christians celebrated the Lord's Supper, Eucharist and Vespers - and invited each other after a “decision of conscience”. In the Catholic Cathedral in Frankfurt, city dean Johannes zu Eltz remembered the “Presence of Jesus Christ in the celebration of the Lord's Supper and the Eucharist” in front of around 150 people, thereby emphasizing what the denominations have in common without forgetting what divides this issue, which is especially important for Catholics.

    Because a real common meal, an intercelebration, is not allowed under Catholic church law. Limburg's Bishop Bätzing had made this clear months ago, when he also said: "Non-Catholic participants should experience themselves as welcome guests." ". Well aware of such reservations, city dean zu Eltz commented on Saturday evening that there were still “ecumenical tasks ahead of us”.