Dinner Speech - Bernhard Spielberg

Change is the only constant in life. This is not only the experience of many people in late modernity, but also that of religious communities. Although they are sometimes regarded – or even present themselves – as a sort of cultural dinosaur, a look into history shows their ability to reform radically when times are changing. Today again, the established Christian Churches in Europe face the challenge to reinvent themselves, if they want to play a relevant role in the societies and the lives – at least – of their own members. To get an impression of the changing face of the old churches – and of the processes that helped them to develop – one can examine the “Fresh Expressions of Church”: about 2.000 communities that emerged in the Churches of England and Scotland in the last seventeen years. They are doing church differently – and have already started to influence others, e.g. the Catholic Church in Germany.