“Watch and Pray” Prayers for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“Watch and Pray”
Prayers for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
That walls of division today may be overcome

(At lunchtime on 9 November 2009 we met at the pieces of the Berlin wall in the garden of the ecumenical centre. A visitor from outside the house asked so which side was in the east and which in the west? I explained that it would not have been possible to paint the eastern side with gaffitti. This led me to say during our prayers that we were lighting the candles on the wrong side - it was not Helmut Kohl who brought the wall down but people with candles and courage on the other side!
I put this service togther, plagiarising what Stephen has been writing on Holy Disorder. Using also by my own diary extracts from that extraordinary year in the GDR - that's where the idea for using Psalm 126 came from. I also remember Friedrich Schorlemmer at the end of a particularly difficult day simply saying let's close this session by singing the Luther peace hymn which is why I chose Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich to end with. I can remember being very moved by its wonderful minor melodies and the fact that everyone apart from me knew the words. I also love the footnote at the bottom of the love of God is broad like beach and meadow - saying that the GDR government was concerned that the words of the hymn were criticising the state using religious language!)

Wir feiern diese Andacht im Namen Gottes,
der Himmel und Erde gemacht hat.
Im Namen des Vaters, des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes.
Amen

Sing: Bleibet hier und wachtet mit mir, wachte und betet, wachet und betet.

Psalms 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.

Sing: Bleibet hier und wachtet mit mir, wachte und betet, wachet und betet.

Matthew 26. 36-46 (read in German)
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’

Some memories from the Gethsemane Church in Berlin, October and November 1989
On 2 October 1989, the Gethsemane church, under its inspiring and committed pastor, Bernd Albani, had started a vigil for people who had been unjustly imprisoned after demonstrations calling for change. A month later, on 7 October 1989, as the SED celebrated 40 years of the GDR, demonstrators gathered on the Alexanderplatz and started marching towards the Palace of the Republic where the festivities were taking place. Ranks of police beat them back, arresting and beating demonstrators indiscriminately - the scene portrayed at the beginning of the film "Goodbye Lenin". Many demonstrators then made a U-turn towards the Gethsemane church, about 2 kilometres away, where they took shelter inside the church while the police sealed off the area around the church. For two days there was an uneasy standoff, those who had taken shelter couldn't leave but the police were not prepared to storm the church.
"Watch and pray" - this is the motto for the series of events that has been taking place this autumn in the Gethsemane church to mark 20 years of the peaceful revolution and the felling of the Berlin Wall.
This morning, the Gethsemane church hosted the central ecumenical service for state and religious leaders to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the wall, just a kilometre or so away from where the church is located.
On the evening of 9 November, however, the church is holding another service of public remembrance. The 9 November marks not only the 20 years since the opening of the walls, but the anniversary of the "Kristallnacht" - the night of broken glass or the state pogrom night - when throughout Germany, Jewish Germans and their houses of worship and property were attacked by the Nazis.
9 November was also the day that the German monarchy handed over power to the elected politicians in 1918. Two days later the armistice was signed.

We pray and light candles for overcoming divisions and walls in today’s world

The love of God is broad like beach and meadow
The Love of God is broad like beach and meadow,
wide as the wind and an eternal home.
God leaves us free to seek him or reject him,
The gives us room to answer Yes or No.
The Love of God is broad like beach and meadow,
wide as the wind and an eternal home.

We long for freedom where our truest being
is given hope and courage to unfold.
We seek in freedom space and scope for dreaming,
and look for ground where trees and plants can grow.

The Love of God is broad ...

But there are walls that keep us all divided;
we fence each other in with hate and war.
Fear is the bricks and mortar of our prison,
our pride of self the prison coat we wear

The Love of God is broad …

O judge us Lord, and in your judgement free us,
and set our feet in freedom’s open space;
take us as far as your compassion wanders
among the children of the human race.

The Love of God is broad ...

Anders Frostenson (1906 - )
Tr. Fred Kaan (1929 - )© Stainer and Bell, London .

In the archives of the GDR State Secretary for Church Affairs there is a paper that expresses concern about this hymn and states that it must not be published in the GDR, describing the text as a means of trying to discredit the state using religious language.

Lord’s Prayer - dans nos différentes langues

Closing prayer
Across the barriers that divide race from race…
Reconcile us, O Christ, by your cross.
Across the barriers that divide the rich from the poor…
Reconcile us, O Christ, by your cross.
Across the barriers that divide people of different faiths…
Reconcile us, O Christ, by your cross.
Across the barriers that divide Christians…
Reconcile us, O Christ, by your cross.
Across the barriers that divide men and women, young and old…
Reconcile us, O Christ, by your cross.

Song
Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich,
Herr Gott, zu unsern Zeiten.
Es ist doch ja kein andrer nicht,
der für uns könnte streiten,
denn du, unser Gott, alleine.