Germany & Czech Republic

URC THAMES NORTH SYNOD

Wanstead URC in North-East London continues to have a very firm and
warm-hearted partnership with the Evangelische Gemeinde in Engelskirchen,
a small town east of Cologne. The links has been going on for This
involves a yearly visit by a party from one of the churches to the other,
usually in the week after Easter. This year's visit to Germany by a party
from Wanstead included a hair-raising ascent in a builder's lift up the
side of Cologne Cathedral (which, as some people may know, is enormous) to
visit the loft space and the pinnacles round the twin towers; and a visit
to Kaiserswerth, a small town on the Rhine near Duesseldorf from which
much of the Rhineland was christianised in the eighth century - by monks
from England! Kaiserswerth is also associated with the Deaconess movement
in the German Protestant Church, founded by a Pastor Theodor Fliedner,
who travelled to London to raise subscriptions for his work among fallen
women in the Duesseldorf slums.

We asked if they could send us more pastors, and send back some of the
money!

Wanstead URC also has links with the congregation of the Evangelical
Church of the Czech Brethren (ECCB) in Decin, northern Bohemia, through
its pastor, Revd. Petr Capek, who spent a year at Westminster College in
the mid-1960s. Parties from Wanstead (and later from Engelskirchen) have
been visiting the ECCB centres at Herlikovice and Janske Lazne in the
north of the Czech Republic since 1990.

For further details contact Malcolm Haslett _malcolm.haslett@ntlworld.com_

The link has also involved people from Chesham URC, Edmonton URC, Mill Hill URC and
Crowborough URC in Sussex. Sheila Rudofsky was a keen supporter too!

See below for some of the evidence!!