Declaration of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany
October 19, 1945
The German Council of Evangelical Churches’ signed in 1945 a document known as the “Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt”. Basahin, paglimian, manalangin, at hingin na magsisi na tayo. Napakarami nang namatay sa EJK. Nawa’y kaawaan at patawarin tayo ng Diyos! Mayroong konting backstory tayo na ibibigay dito:
Ang pangunahing nagtulak nito ay si Pastor Martin Niemoller, dating tagasuporta ni Adolf Hitler. Napakalaking pagsisisi ang nag-udyok sa kanya upang pangunahan ang paglabas ng Deklarasyon ng Pag-ako ng Pagkasala (translation ko ng Declaration of Guilt). Noong siya ay nabilanggo, nasabi niya sa kasama niya sa bilangguan na nalinlang siya ng mga pangako ni Hitler na hindi gagalawin ang mga simbahan at walang mangyayaring patayan sa mga Hudyo. Nalinlang man siya, tinitingnan niya ang pagsuporta kay Adolf Hitler bilang isang malaking pagkakamali na pinagbabayaran niya at ng marami pang iba.
Nang bumagsak na nga ang Germany sa Allied Forces, isinaisip niya ang sinabi ng martyred theologian na Dietrich Bonhoeffer na ang “road to repentance” lang ang daan na bukas sa Christian church upang mabuhay na ito muli. Ginawa ni Niemoller na personal crusade ang pagpunta sa iba’t ibang sambahan upang ulit-ulitin ang pagsisisi ng Council of Evangelical Church in Germany.
Doon sa worship service na kasama ang ilang church leaders ng Allied forces, nag-preach si Niemoller on Jeremiah 14:7-11. At ayon sa Dutch church leader na si Visser’t Hooft, sinabi ni Niemoller na hindi sapat na sisihin ang Nazis. Kailangang harapin ng simbahan ang sarili nitong kasalanan. Sabi pa ni Niemoller:
“Would the Nazis have been able to do what they had done if church members had been truly faithful Christians?”
Maaari rin nating tanungin ang isa’t isa at ang kapwa-mananampalatayang Pilipino habang binabasa natin ang pag-ako ng pagkakasala ng German Evangelical Church:
“Nag-succeed kaya, ang malawakang patayan sa ilalim ng pamahalaang ito, kung naging tapat tayo sa ating pagiging Kristiyano?”
This text of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland is frequently referred to as the STUTTGART DECLARATION OF GUILT
The Council of the Evangelical [Protestant] Church in Germany welcomes representatives of the World Council of Churches to its meeting on October 18-19, 1945, in Stuttgart. We are all the more thankful for this visit, as we know ourselves to be with our people in a great community of suffering, but also in a great solidarity of guilt. With great anguish we state: through us has endless suffering been brought to many peoples and countries. What we have often borne witness to before our congregations, we now declare in the name of the whole Church. We have for many years struggled in the name of Jesus Christ against the spirit which found its terrible expression in the National Socialist regime of tyranny, but we accuse ourselves for not witnessing more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not loving more ardently.
Now a new beginning can be made in our churches. Grounded on the Holy Scriptures, directed with all earnestness toward the only Lord of the Church, they are now proceeding to cleanse themselves from influences alien to the faith and to set themselves in order. Our hope is in the God of grace and mercy that he will use our churches as his instruments and will give them authority to proclaim his word and in obedience to his will to work creatively among ourselves and among our people. That in this new beginning we may become wholeheartedly united with the other churches of the ecumenical fellowship fills us with deep joy. We hope in God that through the common service of the churches the spirit of violence and revenge which again today is tending to become powerful may be brought under control in the whole world, and that the spirit of peace and love may gain the mastery, wherein alone tortured humanity can find healing. So in an hour in which the whole world needs a new beginning we pray: “Veni Creator Spiritus.”
Bishop Wurm
Bishop Meiser
Superintendent Hahn
Bishop Dibelius
Professor Smend
Pastor Asmussen
Pastor Niemoeller
Landesoberkirchenrat Lilje
Superintendent Held
Pastor Niesel
Dr. Heinemann
