The right word at the right time? Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the ecumenical witness for justice and peace

This year sees the 90th anniversary of the entry of Dietrich Bonhoeffer into the ecumenical movement and its witness for peace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer was a youth delegate at the International Conference of the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches, at Cambridge, England, 1–4 September 1931, where he was appointed a youth secretary of the Alliance (one of the forerunners of the WCC).

This webinar, and a second one planned for March 2022, will feature a discussion of his prophetic involvement for justice and peace in his own time; his legacy and continuing influence since his death in 1945; and the ways he continues to inspire prophetic action on global issues and in diverse contexts today. Bonhoeffer concluded his report on the Cambridge Conference: ‘When will the time come that Christianity speaks the right word at the right time?’ His challenge continues.

Moderator:

Sara Gehlin (Sweden). Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and Theology, Eastern Christian Studies, and Human Rights, at University College Stockholm. Researcher in ecumenical history and peacebuilding at the Church of Sweden Research Department and the University of Helsinki 2016-20. Author of Pathways for Theology in Peacebuilding: Ecumenical Approaches for Just Peace (2020).

Panelists:

Keith Clements (UK). Author of several works on Bonhoeffer including Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ecumenical Quest (WCC 2015). Emeritus Board Member, International Bonhoeffer Society (English-speaking Section). Former General Secretary, Conference of European Churches.
Presentation title: Cambridge 1931: Bonhoeffer makes his entrance.

Victoria Barnett (USA). Historian of the Nazi period in Germany, and former director of the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC; General Editor of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works in English.
Presentation title: Bonhoeffer and Ecumenism: An Uneasy but Critical Encounter

Victoria Turner (UK). PhD candidate in World Christianity, Edinburgh University, looking at the history of mission and ecumenism. Membership secretary for the Society for Ecumenical Studies, and editor of the SCM magazine Movement
Presentation title: On being a young person in the ecumenical movement. Parallels and lessons from Dietrich Bonhoeffer for young theologians today? 

Samuel E. Murillo Torres (Mexico). Minister, Methodist Church of Mexico, and currently visiting preacher in the Methodist Circuit in the North of Scotland. PhD candidate in Systematic Theology and Teaching Assistant, University of Aberdeen Divinity School. Visiting Lecturer in Ecumenism, Religious Diversity and Eastern/Western theologies, Comunidad Teológica de México; President for Youth and Young Adults,  World Methodist Council 2016-2021.
Presentation title: What we can learn from the young Bonhoeffer about confronting injustice and institutionalised systemic violence today. Contemporary case-study: the theological pilgrimage of experiencing enforced disappearances in Mexico.

Hassan Musa (Nigeria). A pioneer Bonhoeffer scholar in Nigeria, where he serves at ECWA Theological Seminary Kagoro, engaged in interdisciplinary research.
Presentation title: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology of responsible action and the notion of ‘otherness’ in African contexts today. 

Nadine Hamilton (Germany). Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology, University of Erlangen. Board Member, International Bonhoeffer Society (German Section).
Presentation title: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s commitment to justice and peace as an expression of faith and discipleship.

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