| Peace prayer services at St. Nicholas |
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Painting the angel of peace above the altar, our ancestors surely did not anticipate that peace prayer services would be so important in the future. A decade ago we ourselves could not imagine that these simple beginnings would ever grow so important.
In the early eighties, the "peace decades" began, held each November. Young people would gather together for prayers over the course of ten days. While there were huge demonstrations in the Federal Republic of Germany to protest against the arm race, the armament race continued. The only chance we had to discuss and reflect on this burning issue was at meetings held within churches. It was a young congregation in the eastern part of Leipzig which decide to hold these peace prayer services week after week, resulting in the regularly scheduled Monday evening services. Later the responsibility for conducting the peace prayer services was transferred by peace groups comprised of former "Bausoldaten" (people, who rendered their compulsory military service by serving in special, unarmed units), environmental activists, and people interested in third world issues. Together they sought to stir the public's conscience and encourage action. The East German government strongly opposed human rights violations as long as they occurred outside of the Warsaw Pact's sphere of influence. But now groups had appeared inside East Germany which were demanding justice and respect for human rights within their own country. At times only a small number attended the peace prayer services. Again and again, however, a particular event prompted crowds of people to attend services in protest. The situation grew explosive when the number of people willing to emigrate began to grow. These applicants for emigration - mostly Non-Christians - had no other opportunity to gather and compare experiences but in our church. Because of the different objectives of the "grass roots groups", consisting of Christians and Non-Christians alike, it was not always easy to maintain a clerical atmosphere at these meetings. Still, together we were able to discover the topicality of the Bible's message, especially the prophetic texts from the Old Testament or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. These two things do belong together: people need to discuss urgent social problems and they need to meditate and pray to God for support and guidance. In September 1989, when some people in the crowd declared: "We want to leave" while others shouted: "We are staying here", the number of arrests climbed. But, by that time, more and more people supported the movement. Days saw the windows of the church decorated with flowers: every night brought numerous glowing candles: sings of fundamental change! But the greatest gift was the spirit of peace that reigned throughout, even on October 9, when everything was at stake. This peaceful attitude - for which we had prayed so many weeks on end with the words of the Beatitudes - spread from the hundreds who gathered in the churches for the peace prayer services to the thousands who flocked together in the city squares and streets. Our peace prayer services will continue! We will deal with today's problems - such as support for the unemployed and efforts to integrate foreigners into our city - as we dealt with problems in the past. Our intercessions and our commitment are just as necessary today as in the past, especially for the world's crisis areas where new wars and conflicts break out constantly Thus, we can say with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that our Christian identity today consists of only two things: In prayer and just behavior. Sup. F. Magirius |