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John Reardon celebrates a relationship between British and German Christians
Jesus told a parable about a mustard seed to remind his hearers that with God the smallest beginnings can produce amazing results. Who would have thought that God could use a packet of egg powder, a marmalade pudding and a tin of sardines to begin a relationship between British and German Christians that has brought untold pleasure to hundreds of people in both countries!
In 1946, in response to news about the hardships being experienced by Germans in the aftermath of war, the Congregational Church at Shelley Road, Worthing, sent two food parcels to the minister of the Protestant Church in Wolfstein in the Palatinate, a region of south west Germany renowned for its vineyards. The Worthing church had been alerted to the plight of the people there by a German living locally who had travelled to see relatives and was shocked at what she had found.
signs of reconciliation
Besides the three food items mentioned the parcels also contained semolina, tins of corned beef, a tin of ideal milk and half a pound of tea. The parcels were received as a sign of reconciliation and for over ten years the Worthing church continued to send food, clothing, soap and lots of bars of chocolate - 161 parcels altogether. By the time the parcels were no longer needed, Germany was well on the way to economic recovery. Meanwhile, however, the link between Worthing and Wolfstein had deepened and broadened.
Three young people from Worthing, two of whom are still alive, went to Wolfstein in 1949 and the Worthing church paid for four young Germans to return the visit a few days later. While in the Palatinate the young people from England visited the leadership of the Palatinate Church. Two years later their minister, the Revd Barnard Spaull, also met the Church President and other church leaders and he came back determined to persuade the officers of the Congregational Union of England and Wales (CUEW) to broaden the relationship which Worthing had initiated.
Those early visits paved the way for negotiations under the auspices of the International Congregational Council (ICC) which led, in 1956, to an agreement between the Palatinate Church and the members of the ICC for “unrestricted communion of pulpit and the Lord’s Table”. In 1957 that agreement was ratified publicly in a celebratory service in Speyer, the ancient capital of the Palatinate, attended by 2500 people. In 1958 a similar service was held in London at the invitation of CUEW.
Since then the relationship has developed in remarkable ways. The original agreement was an open invitation for ministers to preach and preside at Holy Communion in each other’s churches and before long a Congregational minister, the Revd Ernest Dawe, left his congregation in Dalston, London, to serve for a few years as a minister in the German town of Ludwigshafen. He stayed there for the rest of his life and a house for recovering alcoholics is named after him in Ludwigshafen, a reminder of how much he was loved by the people of his adopted country. Ernest Dawe was not the only one to respond to the invitation. Harold Tonks served twice in the Palatinate and from Germany Martin Henninger and Hartmut Eder have been ministers in United Reformed congregations.
growing relationships
The relationship between Worthing and Wolfstein was the first of numerous contacts between local congregations in Britain and the Palatinate. The church in Purley, for example, is twinned with a church in Speyer, and there are longstanding twinning arrangements involving churches in Banstead, Leeds, Romford, Ipswich and Cambridge, to name but a few. During the Cold War era when Germany was divided into East and West the Palatinate Church had a close relationship with the Anhalt region in East Germany and as a result several twinning relationships broadened to include congregations there. Last year the church in Newport Pagnell entered into a twinning relationship with three village churches in a joint pastorate near Pirmasens in the Palatinate. The mustard seed is still bearing fruit!
theological consultations
Every two years the United Reformed Church, which inherited the relationship forged by the CUEW, and the Palatinate Church organise a theological consultation at which members of both Churches study together and exchange information about some of the current questions that face them. Over the years these consultations have focused on the Holy Communion, on interfaith dialogue and the mission of the churches in Europe. For over thirty years an annual teachers’ conference brought together for a week teachers and their families from both Churches and there were sometimes as many as forty to fifty taking part. Every two years since the late 1950s there has been a Tri-National conference involving members from the French Reformed Church as well as British and German participants.
The relationship with the Palatinate Church has blossomed in so many different ways. Ministers from Britain have spent time in the Palatinate on their sabbaticals, members have gone to Germany to take part in social service under the Time for God scheme and many lasting friendships, even marriages, have resulted. German ministers have visited the UK as part of their ecumenical training and some have spent longer periods on placement in the URC before ordination. Official representatives have been regular visitors at the URC General Assembly and the Palatinate Synod, which it calls its assembly.
Since 1981 the women of the Yorkshire Synod have held regular conferences with the Palatinate women and in 2000 the Yorkshire Synod was asked to be specially responsible for nurturing the link with the Palatinate Church on behalf of the URC as a whole.
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the celebration of the pulpit and table agreement. Services will be held in Speyer on 3rd June and in York Minster on 21st October. Two conferences surrounding those services will focus on the link between the two Churches and the way that link might develop in future.
John Reardon is a former moderator of general assembly and his book ‘re-telling the complete relationship between the united reformed church and the palatinate church’ will be available fro early June.
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