– 7-11 October 2022 in Dortmund, GermanyFestival "100 Years The Christian Community" LOGOS – Consecrating Humanity

LOGOS – Consecrating Humanity is now the title of our conference. Up to now we have deliberately spoken provisionally of CG 2022, but now the planning teams have committed themselves to a message with which we want to enter our second century. While there will be translations of the subtitle, the German will use the English version.

Choosing this title took many months, so we did not make it easy for ourselves. It was not intended to be a catchy advertising slogan, nor an attention-grabbing headline on a poster, but rather a signpost for our future that expressed some content.

Let us look at some details. The Act of Consecration of Man is a deed, an act. Humanity means both the state of being human as well as the quality of being humane – being compassionate, sympathetic or generous.

The striving for humaneness is expressed in the formulation of human rights or in the Charter of the United Nations. However, we often see how difficult it is to be humane in unjust and violent living conditions. But as Christians we are striving for more than humaneness. We try to see beyond human beings here and now in this earthly world, and strive to see their full nature that reaches into higher worlds.

The title LOGOS – Consecrating Humanity thus emphasises the desire, the hope, the prayer that in our time through the Logos a consecration may take place both of the whole of humanity and of humaneness.

The term “consecrate” means to make something sacred, which immediately takes us to the realm of sacraments. This brings us to an important part of the conference. For the sacraments were already to be a focal point of the conference.

Many groups, organisations and states around the world are committed to humanity, to social renewal, to sustainability in every respect, to humaneness and tolerance. And we should support these as a Christian Community. However, only churches can bring the sacraments into the world, and we in The Christian Community strive for a renewed understanding of the sacraments. For this reason, various sacraments will be part of the conference, both thematically and practically – even the sacrament of Ordination of Priests will be celebrated there.

In preparation, a newsletter contained a series of contributions on the sacraments of the Christian Community, Rev Volker Harlan (Easter 2020), Rev Michael Bruhn (St John’s Tide 2020), Rev Anastasiia Mazur, and Rev Tom Ravetz (Michaelmas 2020) and is accessible at https://cg-2022.org/wp/index.php/filedownload/. The last edition can be downloaded by clicking here.

So let us become attuned to LOGOS – Consecrating Humanity. The claim that the sanctification of humanity and humaneness may take place in this time is lofty and in a way superhuman. To live up to this claim is a tremendous challenge. And time is pressing.