An Act of Defiance

Ever since the Berlin Wall went up, East Germany's Communist government has been pressuring the country's Evangelical Church to break its ties with Protestantism in West Germany. Last week, in a remarkable act of defiance against their Red bosses, East German Protestant leaders unanimously voted to maintain the union--and then went on to join with their West German counterparts in electing a new chairman of the All-German Church Council.

Both actions took place at the annual synods of the two churches, which met under difficult conditions. In the past, the two branches of Protestantism have gathered in different sectors of divided Berlin, and some West Germans have been allowed to visit their brethren in the east. This time, Communist officials forced the East German synod to meet at Fiirstenwalde, 20 miles from Berlin--and made it clear ahead of time that they expected the meeting to end in a formal schism (TIME, April 7).

Strength from the Lord. Their hopes were bluntly disappointed. Addressing the opening session of the East German synod, Bishop Friedrich Wilhelm Krum-macher of Greifswald warned: "If Christians, who are limbs of the one Lord, and who belong together as limbs of one church, are no longer allowed to be mentioned in one breath, it is no longer an institutional question but a matter of the unity of faith in one Lord."

Inspired by this proclamation, the 42 delegates issued a statement of policy, asserting that "the 28 Evangelical dioceses in the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stand together in the spirit of united Christians." To renounce unity because of political differences "would have the church serve the goddess of the state." The manifesto concluded: "We therefore have no reason to sever our bonds with the community of the Evangelical Church in Germany. The Lord who forgives us our trespasses will give us the strength to serve him in ever greater freedom."

Equally defiant of Communist hopes was the synod's participation in the election of a new council chairman, Germany's top Protestant post. The man chosen--Bavaria's Bishop Hermann Dietzfelbinger, 58--was in fact formally proposed by the Fiirstenwalde session. Regarded as a moderate on the question of East-West relations, Dietzfelbinger was chosen over the pre-synod favorite, Hannover's Bishop Hanns Lilje, who is more closely identified with Germany's political controversies. Dietzfelbinger succeeds Bishop Kurt Scharf of Berlin-Brandenburg, who hopes to return to East Berlin, from which he was expelled in 1961.

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