Johannes Church in Bad Godesberg Pastor calls for dialogue with Muslims

Bad Godesberg · Pastor Jan Gruzlak of the Johannes Church in Bad Godesberg will receive Ditib mosque association chair Süleyman Hasbal for Christmas Eve service. Efforts are being made for greater dialogue between Muslims and Christians.

Gathering for a photo for GA, the group posing in front of the Ditib Mosque was pleased to send out a signal for Christian-Muslim dialogue. “It is important to always stay in dialogue with one another, especially in this part of the city. It’s fear of the unknown that allows angst to develop,” said Pastor Jan Gruzlack of the Protestant Johannes Church community. He was welcomed by Ditib Imam Dogan Eygün.

The chair of the Turkish-Islamic Culture Association of Ditib is Süleyman Hasbal, who is active from the Muslim side to see to it that the communities in Bad Godesberg continue to live peacefully together and are able to approach one another. The association has 250 members, 80 percent of them living in the vicinity. “This is really door to door with the Christians from Pastor Gruzlak’s church community,” he comments. Hasbal accepted an invitation from Pastor Gruzlak to come to his church service on Christmas Eve - regardless of recent developments in Turkey.

Gruzlak has brought new life to the contact between Christians and Muslims in the area. “We theologians like to talk about peace. Here, it’s a concrete. Right here in Bad Godesberg, we need to help maintain the peace,” said the pastor. He tries to accomplish this by first expanding his network. At the Johannes Church, he has a network of people who are willing to be active and help, with interfaith homework, breakfast get togethers for mothers and library help.

They have a series called “Koran for Christians” which has been running for some time already and allows for frank discussion about religion. Gruzlak has seen to it that the Protestant community has persons in contact with seven Muslim institutions in the areas. “In that way, we have an immediate contact for every occasion,” he says.

Movie nights, cooking evenings, reciprocal visits in mosques and churches as well as discussion groups have already taken place. “But we must come closer together,” said Gruzlak. If one doesn’t reach out to the other, a veil of fear remains.

The pastor was relieved that the “Lies” Koran distribution initiative had been prohibited. “We cannot allow people to recruit for Jihad on our Theaterplatz,” he said.

Orig. text: Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu

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