Like public life in general, church life has been severely restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020. As a result, communication with parish members was digitalized in a wide variety of formats – affecting not only worship services but also offerings in church education, pastoral care and diaconia. The CONTOC study (Churches Online in Times of Corona), an international ecumenical research project on the digital presence of the churches under pandemic conditions, examined how these offerings were designed, under which conditions they emerged, and what future they might have. It also investigated possible effects of these digitalization dynamics on the self-understanding of church actors and on the organisation of church practice.
The Brussels office of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) warmly invited to an online presentation of the CONTOC study on Wednesday, 16 June 2021, 11:00–12:30. The presentation by members of the research group was followed by a discussion of the perspectives for the churches in Germany and Europe that can be derived from the study results – asking together: Have the churches passed their digital baptism of fire? And how will things continue? Participants were invited to put their questions to the panel.
Our guests were:
- Prof. Dr. Georg Lämmlin (Director of the Social Science Institute of the EKD)
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Schlag (Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Zurich, Chair of the Centre for Church Development)
- Prof. Dr. Ilona Nord (Professor of Protestant Theology with a focus on Religious Education at the University of Würzburg)
- Philipp Greifenstein (freelance journalist and blogger)
- Krystian Sowa (Director of the Chapel for Europe, Brussels)
- Welcome: OKR’in Katrin Hatzinger, Head of the EKD office in Brussels
- Moderation: Lina Neeb, Vicar of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau