Wolfgang Huber - Church Reform

Church Reform

As bishop and chairperson of the EKD’s Council Huber initiated and supported numerous reform programs. In the context of the challenges mainline Protestantism face, especially in the eastern parts of Germany, Huber advocated for a missionary reorientation of the church. For him church reform is closely connected to the rediscovery of the church’s evangelical essence and requires openness to those who have distanced themselves from the Christian faith. These impulses characterize the large-scale reform process, subsumed under the theme “Church of freedom”, which Huber headed. The document Kirche der Freiheit describes how the church can set its profile in society, whilst respecting societal plurality. This document formulates four goals for the reform of the Protestant church in Germany, namely (a) spiritual profiling instead of indistinct activity, (b) prioritising instead of aiming for completeness, (c) structural mobility and (d) shifting the focus of the activities of the church to the outside instead of self-contentment. In his own regional church Huber also oversaw a reform process, “Salt of the earth”. Huber’s tenure as chairperson of the EKD’s Council also saw the incorporation of the Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands and the Union Evangelischer Kirchen with the EKD, the streamlining of regional churches from 23 to 21, and the initiation of further reform processes.