This week we attended a conference on the ‘Contours of European Adventism’ at Friedensau University in the former East Germany. We flew into Berlin Schoenefeld Airport - which is surprisingly primitive for a major European city. Whether you are arriving or departing, there are few places to sit, eat or shop and always lots of stairs and no escalators.
There is a back-story. When you land, you taxi past the huge new Berlin Brandenburg Airport. which was due to open in 2011. It is empty. it has endless design faults with fire alarms, smoke extractors, escalators, etc, etc and is already 5 billion euros over budget. Now many legal claims mount in the courts. This major facility for the German capital city is not fit for its purpose – to welcome the countless passengers who want to travel to Berlin.
A subtext to the conference was the question, ‘Is the contemporary European Adventist Church fit for purpose? Is it able to welcome 21st century people who may be looking for some sort of spiritual destination? We’re still processing exactly what the answers are to that question.
To read my three reports of the conference go to https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2018/04/25/conference-contours-european-adventism-day-one.
To read Mike’s (sparkling - I’m not biased!) contribution to the conference go to https://www.pearsonsperspectives.com/windows-on-the-word-geog-of-heart