• Churchgoers
• Prayer Diary
• Noticeboard
• Taize 2012
• Social Action
• Community Partnership and Funding
• Welcoming Visitors and Tourists
• Communications for Parishes
• Environment and Rural Issues
• Music in our churches
• Interfaith
• The Council for World Partnership and Development
  • Tanzania
  • Nuremberg
  • Visits
  • Community and church Links in Tanzania and Elsewhere
  • Coming Events
  • Remembrance
  • CWPD Downloads Page
  • Food Farming and Environment
• Board of Education
• Ecumenical
• Church Yard Regulations
• Mothers' Union

You are here » Home» Churchgoers» The Council for World Partnership and Development» Parish Links with Germany

PARISH LINKS WITH GERMANY

Over the last 20 years a number of parishes have enjoyed "twinning" arrangements with parishes in North Bavaria, within the framework of the partnership between the Diocese of Hereford and the Lutheran Church of Nuremberg. They include:

In addition Hereford Cathedral has hosted many visitors from Nuremberg, and there is an enduring partnership between the Bishop's Bluecoats School in Hereford and the Wilhelm-Löhe-Schule in Nuremberg. Other parishes are exploring the possibility of a link at the present time.

What do links offer?

- Hospitality - Visits, staying with families, holidays, making new friends, links between youth groups.
- Broadening the Mind - Seeing another country not just as a tourist, showing German visitors our own country, trying out each other's languages, seeing ourselves as others see us, exchanging ideas.
- Culture - Visits by choirs, orchestras, bands; sharing each other's festivals.
- Schools - some links have developed strong bonds between local schools, with opportunities for educational visits and new language and history projects.
- Reconciliation - Friendships between British and German families and churches help to reduce prejudice, to reconcile our conflicts and re-assess our history. People begin to share their stories, and discover new ways of observing "Remembrance".
- Mission - How do our churches engage in mission today? People come home from exchange visits with new ideas: "fresh expressions" of Church, "The Long Night of the Churches", different approaches to evangelism, youth work and Confirmation.

How do we find out more?

Links often begin with a personal contact, but they need to have the support of the local Church Council in both countries. Advice is available from the Chair of the Hereford-Nuremberg Partnership Committee:
Bishop Michael Bourke, The Maltings, Little Stretton, Shropshire SY6 6AP Tel. 01694 722910, email