Jubilee Inspires and Enriches in Multiple Ways
IDC President Klaus Kieβling Feels Much Gratitude at the End of the Jubilee
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
as I took the role to open our conference on behalf of our board and the assembly of delegates I will also close it now. But closing the jubilee of the IDC means keeping the doors open – and inviting you to our next international study conference. It shall take place in 2017, from the 7th to the 10th of September, in Strasbourg in France.
You will get this information by email, and various texts you asked for will also be available – especially our Pope’s message, Cardinal Maradiaga’s message and our Protector’s message – when the translations in the different languages will have been finalized and officially approved.
But first of all I feel very grateful this Sunday morning:
thank you for coming here,
thank you for your various contributions to our jubilee,
thank you for your patience when the programme had to be changed or tended to be exhausting,
thank you for your solidarity, also for your ecumenical solidarity.
And I feel enriched and inspired in various ways, please let me pick up just three ideas:
First of all I would like to refer to our Holy Father. As Pope Francis put it, deacons are ambassadors of Jesus Christ, ambassadors of God’s incarnation. In my eyes God’s incarnation is the beginning of our incarnation. As ambassadors of Jesus Christ we are called to contribute to each other’s incarnation, in our neighbourhood as well as all over the world. At the end of our jubilee I am convinced more than ever before that we may and have to make our contribution so that our Pope’s vision of a diaconal universal church will come true more and more.
The second idea emerged day by day: deacons are building bridges – between persons, between languages, between cultures, between heaven and earth. Each of you has been building bridges in these days. In that sense you all are deacons, male or female, officially or secretly.
The third idea comes from Assisi. Yesterday we saw the very famous painting that showed Francis sharing the gospel with any creature. Deacon Francis’ mission is our mission. We shall share the gospel with any creature. And I wish you all that you will always – on all your ways – find at least someone who will share the gospel with you. Thank you so much.
Klaus Kießling, President of the IDC