And the second Sunday of Advent has already arrived. December has dawned and one can peek behind the first Advent calendar doors. Our guests on the second Advent that express their wishes for the church in the digital age are: Lilith Becker from the yeet-network, the head of church telephone counselling in Berlin Uwe Müller and the leader of the catholic office for missionary pastoral work Hubertus Schönemann.
Lilith Becker (head of the protestant influencer network "yeet")
Let's say Cinderella is the Digital Church. Her sisters and the mother, a once respected family, are our old church structures. The prince is the public and the ball audience is our society.
- My first wish: May the love for our newly developing church last. We should continue to motivate this love for the new changes in the church. Because we have something to offer: We are there at the right moment, we can be relied upon.
- My second wish: Digital Church, you are seen - but you still live in the kitchen, sleep there with the ashes like Cinderella once did. But you will capture people's hearts because you show them yours - and not because you come from a once respected and powerful family. Soak up this feeling and keep it with you, it is your treasure. Above all, be as clever as the fairy tale Cinderella: form alliances with mice and doves. Make networks.
- My third wish: The church family trusts Cinderella, even if her marriage to the prince should not last. Cinderella (the digital church) continues in her courageous way: She shows herself as a human being who has taken wounds to body and soul just as every single human being experiences in life - and through her path, she becomes a credible queen of hearts, role model and companion in life. No matter how far you come on your path, dear Digital Church Cinderella: Think humbly of your origins. Do not forget your first friends, the mice and doves. Remain patient. Serve humbly. And do not lose yourself in a pride based on borrowed power. Remember where you come from and do it differently from the previous princes and princesses. Keep an open mind - and when the time has come, you too will make your throne free for the next generation.
Uwe Müller (head of the Church telephone counselling service Berlin)
- In concrete terms, and as soon as possible, I would like to see a "digital telephone counselling service", a network of e-mail and chat counselling, so that the fragmentation and the consultation hours come to an end and we in the telephone counselling service can also be reached digitally 24/7.
- I would also like to see a stronger presence of pastoral care in Germany in the social networks, according to age and user. From there, I would like to see easier access to the pastoral counselling and help system for users.
- The same applies to messenger services, which cannot be used because they do not comply with German data protection guidelines. A solution must be found. The users decide how they want to reach us and we cannot force our medium on them. There are also protected digital spaces.
Hubertus Schönemann (Head of the catholic office for missionary pastoral work)
My three wishes are...
- That even more responsible people learn to appreciate the digital not as an additional burden but as a natural part of communication.
- That the diversity, fluidity and freedom associated with digital challenges change the aesthetics and wording "in churches"
- That more and more people in the churches' "sphere of influence" recognise that digital formats enable creative and self-determined ways of participation and engagement.