What is Next for Diaconal Activity in Congregational Contexts?
[Wie geht es weiter mit dem diakonischen Handeln in gemeindlichen Kontexten?]
Together with Dr. Ulf Harder

The “diaconal community” has long been an ideal with great appeal—and with certain hurdles in practice. This lecture deals with both sides of this, placing an emphasis on the situation in the East German federal states. 

Tobias Braune-Krickau is Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Greifswald. His research focuses on diaconia studies and church theory, on the theory of religion in modern society, and on historical and empirical preaching studies. His most recent publications include a two-volume edition of texts from Henning Luther. 

What is Next for Church Liturgical Pratice?
[Wie geht es weiter mit der kirchlichen Kasualpraxis?]
Together with Prof. Dr. Ursula Roth

Hardly any other field of church practice is currently in such a state of conceptual and practical flux as liturgy. The field of practice is widely differentiated, new formats are emerging for the classic, life-historical occasions as well as for new occasions, whether further life-historically significant events or for those that are located in the public sphere, such as public commemorations. Most recently, medially staged religious events—such as baptisms, pop-up weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, or other blessing opportunities have attracted attention both within the church and without.

This lecture, planned as a dual lecture by Ursula Roth and Emilia Handke, provides the opportunity to reflect on the transformational processes observed in liturgical practice from a practical theological standpoint and to interpret them in terms of liturgical theory. In doing so, it focuses in particular on the theoretical implications for the church that are associated with the development of liturgical practice.

Dr. Emilia Handke is the director of the Preaching and Study Seminar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Her dissertation focused on liturgy for the nonreligious, and she founded the ritual agency “st. moment” in Hamburg. Her current book, Dein Leben, dein Moment: Rituale neu entdecken und individuell gestalten (with Meike Barnahl) seeks to make liturgy accessible to a broader public. 

What is Next for Diaconal Activity in Congregational Contexts?
[Wie geht es weiter mit dem diakonischen Handeln in gemeindlichen Kontexten?]
Abstract shared with Prof. Dr. Tobias Braune-Krickau

Dr. Ulf Harder has been the provost of Bethlehem Abbey in Ludwigslust and the theological director of the West Mecklenburg-Schwerin Diaconia since 2023. After his Protestant theology studies in Rostock, Tübingen, and Greifswald, he was a research assistant in Practical Theology within the theology faculty at the University of Greifswald. He completed his doctoral studies in pastoral care and is a pastor in the Pomeranian Evangelical Church within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.

What is Next for Positionality in School Religion Classes?
[Wie geht es weiter mit der Positionalität im schulischen Religionsunterricht?]
Together with Prof. Dr. Stefanie Lorenzen

Based on its constitutional anchoring, the positionality of Protestant religious education is defined by its confessionality. This relates primarily to its content and the ecclesiastical affiliation of the teachers. 

This lecture has two main goals:

1) In a dialogue between theory and practice, we want to examine how positionality and confessionality show themselves very concretely in everyday teaching.

2) We want to reflect together on the extent to which tendencies can already be recognized (e.g., through increasing heterogeneity of the students, teacher shortages, cooperative forms of teaching, etc.), as the positionality of religious education develops in the future.

Dr. Henning Hupe is a high school teacher at the Hebel Gymnasium Schwetzingen, with academic publications in the fields of New Testament and religious education.  

What is Next for Positionality in School Religion Classes?
[Wie geht es weiter mit der Positionalität im schulischen Religionsunterricht?]
Abstract shared with Dr. Henning Hupe

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Lorenzen holds the Chair of Religious Education and Didactics of Religious Education at the Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg. The question of religious decision and positionality in religious education is one of her main research areas. 

What is Next for Occasional Church Rite Praxis?
[Wie geht es weiter mit der kirchlichen Kasualpraxis?]
Abstract shared with Dr. Emilia Handke

Prof. Dr. Ursula Roth holds the Chair of Practical Theology in the theology department at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Themes of liturgical theory are one of her main research emphases.

Prophetic discourse in a troubled world. A South African perspective 

“I shall look at the world through tears. Perhaps I shall see things that dry-eyed I could not see” Nicolas Wolterstorff wrote as part of a lament after the death of his son. At grass roots level in South Africa, many people look at the world through the emotion of anger and see what those without anger cannot see. One major cause for this experience of anger, is the reality of inequality as South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. This paper will explore how these angry voices use experience, senses and emotions to analise their context and based on that utter a prophetic discourse in a troubled country. If these angry voices indeed hold prophetic potential, what should the attitude and position of the traditional mainline churches, which are in general also the affluent churches in South Africa, be regarding these voices? In conversation with Old Testament Studies, Performance Theory and Homiletics, the potential of angry voices at grass roots level as potential forms of prophetic speech in an unequal society and the need for listening to these voices by mainline churches will be explored. Maybe in South Africa both poor and rich should “look at the world through the lens of anger”, but specifically the anger of the poor as it articulates something about the theology we need for the future. 

Cas Wepener is Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Stellenbosch. His research focuses on liturgy and worship as well as homiletics. In 2022 he published the "International Handbook of Practical Theology" with B. Weyel et al.