German Exchange

Christ Church, Isle of Dogs, exchange with Sophien parish in Mitte, Berlin.

By Tamsin Vaughan Williams

13 of us, led by our vicar Fr Tom Pyke, have just returned from our 3-night exchange to Sophien Church in Berlin Germany.

We have continued this exchange for 25 years, alternating each year. There have been blips, but we have kept going, and our 20th anniversary celebrations in St Lukes on the Isle of Dogs, back in 2019, gave us our 15 minutes of fame. It attracted past participants in the exchange, the great and the good of the London clergy, and a photo in the Church Times.

How did it all begin?

Here is the background. This paragraph is written by Jutta Brueck, then a curate here at Christ Church Isle of Dogs. She later married the vicar, Martin Seeley and together they led the early exchanges.

‘The link started when in 1999 the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres invited a small group of clergy from the Diocese to visit Berlin, following the partnering of the Diocese of London with the Evangelische Kirche Berlin/Brandenburg. In 1988 the Meissen Agreement/Declaration ajueement.aspx) clarified relations between our two churches. 
I was part of that group of 4, who went to Berlin in July 1999, and I stayed with the pastor, Harmut Scheel in the Sophiengemeinde. Harmut was very welcoming, and I used the weekend there to tell people about the Church of England, which was completely unfamiliar to them. When mentioning the Anglican church, their minds thought of Anglo-American bombers. Anyway, Hartmut thought that there could be scope for a parish-link, given some of the similarities between our parishes — both urban, undergoing a great deal of change, valuing music, working with young people, and was interested in building on my visit. 
Once back in London, Martin, and I, after consultation with the PCC, decided to invite the Berliners to come to the Isle of Dogs, and the first visit of Berliners took place (I think about 12 of them) from 19 -22 November 1999 and was extremely successful. The return visit happened in June 2000 and things went from there, with annual visits. 


Back to this weekend. On both sides we try to add activities to prove that our visits are not just a church mini breaks.

Of course, the people we meet and the happy friendships that have endured, are the great strength of the exchange.

What did we do this weekend?

Sophien church is tucked just inside the old east German border. In 1964, the American priest and activist, Martin Luther king managed to cross the border without a passport (his had been confiscated by the American government who, for several reasons, didn't want him behind the Iron Curtain,) to preach there. How he slipped in isn’t clear, but the reason that we now have a copy of the sermon he preached, is because the Russian Secret Service recorded it.

This week is the 40 th anniversary of this Martin Luther King visit, and so we watched a film and talked about divisions. The Sophien congregation is a mixture of parishioners from the old East and West Germany.

We then discussed barriers and prejudices.

There is a musical link. Berliners love to sing and it's an international activity. “We shall Overcome” works for even the most musically challenged. Our Director of Music Julien Lee, led on the piano.

This year we visited Potsdam and after a glorious river cruise in the sunshine and an excellent lunch, had a look at the Garrison Church.

This had once been a doppelganger for the Sophien church, built by the same architect. It was flattened by bombing, and had historically had also been the focus of some of the more unsavoury parts of German history, with not much emphasis on God. Many felt that it should all be forgotten. The compromise, which of course has satisfied no one, has been to just rebuild half a church. There is no knave, but we all enjoyed the splendid view from the spire.

Many old friends were united this weekend. Past exchange visitors travelled across Germany to meet us all again. Most of them have stayed with us at one time or another, with private visits and exchanges outside the church visits. I have now been involved for about 20 years, ever since Martin Seely billeted two Germans on me, despite my protests about working at the weekend, and two small children. ‘” You won’t have to do anything,” he lied, “but you do have a spare room.”

Heike and Roland been brilliant friends ever since.

It was a wonderful weekend. We were lucky that the sun shone continually, and we had three days of laughter and friendship.

It’s our turn to host next year.