Partnership with the UCC New York Conference

Since 2016, the Berlin-Stadmitte district has maintained a partnership with the New York conference of the United Church of Christ, a partner church of the EKD at the national level.
Large, traditional mainline churches in Berlin and New York face many of the same challenges. Maintaining involved and active church members, the maintenance of historic church buildings, and a special emphasis on interfaith dialogue are just some of the things that church life in both world cities have in common. And when it comes to projects like church planting – the establishment of new spiritual centers such as the Refo Moabit in Berlin – the two churches have much to learn from one another.

Partnership updates

– Click here for a video prayer offered for our friends in the UCC New York Conference, 4 November 2020
– Joint service celebrates the partnership between the New York Conference of the UCC and the Berlin-Stadtmitte district, 8 November 2016

Celebrating the partnership between Berlin-Stadtmitte and the UCC New York Conference

The New York Conference of the United Church of Christ and the Berlin-Stadmitte district of the United Church of Berlin, Brandenburg, and Silesian Upper Lusatia are pleased to annouce the kickoff of a long-term partnership between the two bodies.
In early November, delegations from both churches signed a memorandum of understanding in Buffalo, New York, and last week a delegation from the UCC visited Berlin. The partnership is ready to begin its work. “We look forward to working together on a number of different levels,” said the Revd Silke Radosh-Hinder, Deputy Superintendent in Berlin-Stadtmitte. “Though New York and Berlin can be quite different, the challenges our churches face are very similar.” The churches’ goal is to learn from and support one another, Radosh-Hinder explained. “How do churches integrate social questions into their ministry? Where can they make their voices heard?”
Pastors from Berlin had visited the UCC New York conference in 2013 and May 2016, but the formal partnership opens up a number of further possibilites: youth exchange, workshops and conferences, mutual visits, and online discussions of topics controversial in both churches. It paves the way for working visits, pastoral support in difficult situations, and prayer with and for one another.
The UCC is a church of approximately one million members throughout the US. It formed in the 20th century from a merger of Protestant churches rooted in both the Anglican and in continental Reformed traditions.