International Congress Renovabis

23rd International Congress Renovabis

The 23rd International Congress Renovabis took place on the 11th and 12th September 2019 and focused on the subject „The Urban Church. Challenges in Providing Pastoral Care, both East and West“.

The ecclesiastical landscape in Central and Eastern Europe has changed considerably since the beginning of the 20th century. Previously, ecclesiastical life took place predominantly in rural areas within classical parish structures. Since then, industrialization and rural exodus have given rise to many big cities in which profound changes took place in the 20th century as a result of war, communist rule and the upheavals 30 years ago. Today, especially the big cities are characterized by increasing secularization. The churches have responded to the developments by designing new forms of pastoral care. Lectures, panels and working groups compared these experiences in East and West and intoduced new approaches.

About the Congress

To bring up topics of pan-European importance: this is one of the tasks of the Renovabis congresses. Over the years, the event has developed into an important forum for dialogue between participants from Eastern and Western Europe. Greetings were addressed to the congress by Pope Benedict XVI, representatives of the Orthodox and Protestant churches, Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dirk Niebel, and the Prime Ministers of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck.