Welcome to Sibiu

More than 200 delegates, experts, guests and staff from 70 member churches came together for the 9th General Assembly of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE), which took place from 27 August to 2 September in Sibiu, Romania.

The international and multilingual meeting took place in the Lutheran parish church in Sibiu (Romania) and was held under the theme ‘In the light of Christ – called to hope’.

The hosts were the Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession in Romania, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Romania, the United Methodist Church in Romania and the Unitarian Church in Romania.
The CPCE General Assembly meets every six years to assess the work of the past six years and to define the working basis for the next six years for the church community, which includes 96 churches in around thirty different countries.

The CPCE strategy
The new strategy ‘Being Church Together in the Light of Hope’, which was unanimously adopted, is based on the following four points. The CPCE is:

• A communion in worship
• A communionof witness and service
• A communion of learning and teaching
• A communion that shapes its structures.

A newly elected 13-member council will lead the work of the CPCE between the General Assemblies in 2024 and 2030. Detailed information about the new council can be found in appendix two of the final report of the CPCE General Assembly.

Priorities for the next six years and the past six years
Proposals for the further work of the CPCE were developed in five future workshops, whereby the new CPCE Council is tasked, among other things, with finding new ways of communicating and networking, taking the younger generation into account when proclaiming the faith, dealing with the question of the image of man in the AI age, and continuing the ecumenical dialogues, the work on the topic of church and democracy and migration.
The documents developed over the past six years on ‘Christian Speech about God’, ‘Practice and Theology of the Lord’s Supper’, ‘Church and Democracy’ and ‘Gender, Sexuality, Marriage, Family’ were adopted and will be published in the coming months.

Four statements on democracy, migration, interreligious dialogue and minority churches adopted:
The General Assembly also discussed and adopted four statements, which are summarised below:

Democracy: The churches want to set an example of democratic forms of participation in which respectful and constructive debates can take place, even if there is not always agreement (e.g. on ethical issues).

Migration: Migration is ‘a form of human and social life’ that has a major impact on family life and church parishes. It is important to support families who are torn apart by migration and to be there for the people in the new destination countries. In recent years the CPCE has supported the ‘Euro-orphans’ project for children whose parents work abroad, by arranging contact with relatives and other forms of support.

Interreligious relations in the context of the war in the Middle East: the CPCE calls on the member churches to remain in dialogue with people of other religions, because in this way ignorance, fear and prejudice can be overcome.

Churches as minorities: The CPCE recommends that its member churches, which are minority churches in many European countries, should engage with their own treatment of minorities, stand up for the rights of minorities and openly reflect on their minority experiences.
All appendices can be found in the final report of the CPCE General Assembly, which is available in the documents’ area.