At the service to ordain priests last weekend, Bishop Martin and Bishop Bettina from the Evangelical Church of Central Germany recommitted to our partnership by signing a new partnership agreement.
A number of representatives from the Church in Germany attended the ordinations and ahead of signing the agreement, Bishop Bettina Schlauraff, Area Bishop, offered some words of greeting to all those being ordained. She referred to words used in their own ordination service, encouraging the new priests to ‘Never give up on anyone!’
After the service Bishop Bettina said: “It is wonderful that we can practise being the Church together, growing together in the Kingdom of God. There are many links between parishes and even youth groups across our two dioceses and the reciprocal visits involving curates have been particularly valuable. Our partnership is all about people being in contact with each other and friendships developing so we can learn from each other. It is inspiring for us.”
Bishop Martin said: “It was wonderful to have Bishop Bettina at our ordinations, and I was honoured to be in Magdeburg earlier this year to attend their ordination service on behalf of our diocese. There are many similarities between our two churches, and it is interesting to explore those as well as our differences. I really value the relationship and am now looking forward to sharing afternoon tea with our German visitors!”
The partnership link between our diocese and Magdeburg in Eastern Germany goes back to around the time when the Berlin Wall came down. Read more about it here.
