Wednesday [28 August]

The second day of the General Assembly

.  The common work starts at 08:30 with the morning prayer in the room of the Sibiu Reformed Church (Mitropoliei Street no. 9). “Light”, the theme of the Wednesday prayer, is the first term of the biblical motto that stands above the Assembly (“In the light of Christ – called to hope”). The prayer will be organised by the North-West Group of the CPCE. The music will be played by an ad-hoc band. They will do it every day.

You can get from the Reformed Church to the Protestant Church, to the plenary sessions, in 3 minutes. Our stewards will welcome you to the plenary session at 09:15 with a brief introduction to the day. Then the actual work begins. Firstly, there are the reports of the Presidium and the General Secretary. This will take us back to the last plenary session, Basel 2018. The plenary sessions are always open to the public and are also broadcast digitally.  The midday prayer at 12.40 pm will take place as a prayer for peace directly in the plenary room.

After the joint lunch buffet planned at 1.00 p.m. in the restaurant “Impăratul Romanilor” (5 minutes’ walk), the delegates will discuss the texts developed in the previous Council period from 2.30 p.m. onwards. These are “Christian Speaking of God”, “Gender, Sexuality, Marriage and Family”, “Practice and Theology of the Lord’s Supper”, “Democracy as a Challenge for Church and Society”. The working groups are not open to the public. The groups will use the rooms of the Brukenthalgymnasium nearby. Guests and observers will form another, separate group, with different programme parallel to the working groups.

At 17:45, we will return to the plenary hall, this time to take part in a business plenary. The first election proposal for the new Council is presented. The proposals submitted by the Council to amend the CPCE statutes are also presented at this time. At 7.00 pm, all participants can enjoy the peace and quiet of a meditative prayer, which also ends the working day in the church and plenary room.

The evening ends in groups, in different central restaurants in Sibiu.  The allocation for dinner will be communicated with a QR code you get at the registration. The programme happily allows all delegates – unless they work in committees – to use the free evening.