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Theological training for African community leaders
ATTiG-Programm (African Theological Training in Germany) will be continued in Hamburg

Almost 300,000 Africans live in Germany, including a large number of Christians. Many of them have organised themselves into communities. The first course for African community leaders in North Germany has just ended (African Theological Training in Germany, ATTiG). Together with the Academy of Mission in Hamburg, the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW), the North-Elbian Centre for World Mission (Hamburg), the Bremen Mission, the theological faculty at Hamburg University, the ecumenical desk of the North-Elbian Lutheran Church and, last but not least, the Council of African Churches in Hamburg, the second semester is now being planned for autumn 2003.

They live and work among us, but as Christians they are scarcely recognised by the German population. For many African Christians in Germany, "their" religious community is the centre where they carry on the religious traditions that they have brought from their homeland. The preachers of these Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Charismatic or Pentecostal communities are only in exceptional cases academically trained theologians, and are mostly lay people who have another job. They celebrate services and hold Bible study groups, sometimes in very unusual places, such as warehouses, on roofs or former office buildings. Sometimes they are guests in German communities. Seldom are there contacts with local communities, and even with other African groups there is not always contact.

In the past Church leaders from Africa have asked their partners in German mission departments: "what are you and the German Churches doing for Africans living in Germany?" These new citizens have often themselves turned to local parishes or church organisations with a request for materials or advice on where they can find training for their community tasks.

Seventeen men and five women from Ghana, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, who lead communities in Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and Lübeck, have now completed the two-year course. At weekends, together with professors and lecturers from the university, representatives of church institutions, mission departments and Free Churches, they worked on biblical texts, church history and topical themes, and particularly problems which they came across in their work. They worked and discussed subjects together in working groups. Their educational backgrounds were as varied as their theological convictions.

The students were very attentive to all subjects. It was obvious that they were used to dealing with Bible texts, but they also learned that there are differing approaches to their understanding. "I miss this interest sometimes at the university", said one professor after her lecture. The young people for their part didn't mince their words and explained to the professor sometimes where, in their opinion, another theological emphasis should be placed. The Africans had scarcely any sympathy for the views of the German female lecturers on the theme "feminist theology".

But even amongst themselves the students were not always in total agreement. Discussions helped the participants to explain their own theological standpoints and to see them in relation to other "truths", declared Dr. Lothar Engel, co-initiator of the project, who works in the EMW as Africa secretary and is responsible for the promotion of theological training projects overseas.

Speeches very often turned into fiery sermons. Then the teachers warned: "a lecture is not a sermon!" or "a seminar is not a service of worship!", a view that was strange to most of the Africans present and made the lecturers seem "suspicious". Some of the course participants had a huge fear that "the professors were not 'real' Christians".

Regular prayers and singing hymns together were important components of services for the students. None of the young people, who were chosen from a group of 30 applicants, failed to complete the course.

While mission departments overseas have long been concerned with the training of indigenous people for service in their own country, the planning and execution of the ATTiG programme was completely new. During the drawing up of the teaching schedule, on the one hand one was unrestricted in the content, as in overseas partner Churches there are English language theological text books, but on the other hand the job situation of the community leaders in Germany is totally different and mostly unknown to the German participants.

The overseas partner Churches observed the course with great interest. And although on one hand they are pleased that something is being done both for all the African communities, and for the individual believers, the ecumenical freedom is not understood by many Church leaders. "We received questions from Africa in which Lutheran Bishops wondered why, for example, we accepted Pentecostal leaders onto the programme, as these groups are taking members from the established Churches in Africa", reported Dr. Andreas Heuser, studies director at the Academy of Mission. The next course will also not deviate from the participation of a multiplicity of confessions.

This first course of its kind in Hamburg was financed by various Church institutions in Germany. It is notable that the Ethiopian community in Germany, whose members come from the Oromo folk, collected money for the course although none of their preachers took part. The participants paid ten Euro per weekend out of their own pockets.

Heuser reports that the news about the ATTiG programme has spread among the Africans Christians living in Germany. Thus a large number of enquiries have been received. He spoke of an "opportune moment for this kind of course", and pointed out that there is a similar course in Wuppertal, and that other regional Churches want to follow the example, as there are large numbers of African communities in large cities, where their leaders, and also members, would like to train.

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