A Bible that tells the story of a special Anglo-German relationship has been presented to the URC’s Offices of the General Assembly in London.
The striking, illustrated Bible was brought to London by Catriona Wheeler, the immediate past Moderator of the General Assembly, from Trinity URC in Lincoln, which closed in January this year. The congregation had been gifted the Bible by the congregation of the Pauluskirche in Hambach, an area of the city of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the Rhineland-Palatinate, or “Pfalz”, in western Germany.
Trinity had been twinned for thirty years with the Pauluskirche, and was one of around twenty local URC congregations that are twinned with partner German churches from the region.
As a member of the Lincoln Choral Society, Catriona visited Neustadt again recently and had the opportunity to attend a service at the Pauluskirche, bringing greetings from Lincoln and from the wider URC, and participating in worship with a Bible reading. Catriona said it was a happy opportunity to confirm an ongoing friendship with Oliver Jaehn, the minister of the Pauluskirche (pictured left), and other members of the congregation, who have visited Lincoln over the years.
The individual church partnerships between URCs and German congregations have grown out of the Covenant of Pulpit and Table Fellowship, established following the Second World War between what is now the United Reformed Church and the Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz.
One aspect of that Covenant is the tradition of biennial theological consultations that alternate between locations in Germany and the UK. This year’s gathering will take place in London in October, taking the theme “The Church’s Prophetic Voice: Naming and Resisting Evil in Society, War and the Climate Crisis”. The event will include a visit to St George’s German Lutheran Church in Aldgate, the oldest German church in Britain, with a history that includes strong associations with the German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Conversations are now being held about how best to display the Pauluskirche-Trinity Bible at the Offices of the General Assembly. What is certain is that its presence will be a permanent visual reminder of the ongoing value of a European relationship now over 60 years old.