And the walls came tumbling down

by Margaret Loewen Reimer

The serenely beautiful sanctuary--decorated with "palm-tree" pillars--gave no hint of the tumultuous events that had taken place there just seven years ago. But when we visited the church in the spring of 1995, we felt that we were in a holy place.

Above the altar was the "angel of peace", an unusual subject for the late 1700s, when the St. Nicholas Church was redone in the classical style. The brochure said: "When our ancestors painted the angel of peace above the altar, they surely did not anticipate that peace prayer services would be so important in the future."

Prayers for peace

In the early 1980s, this church in Leipzig, the capital city of East Germany, began to host prayer meetings each November. Young people would gather for 10 days to pray for the end of the arms buildup, for the environment and for justice.

Then a church youth group decided to hold these peace prayer services every week, right after the Monday evening service. Soon peace groups of all kinds--including military objectors, environmentalists and human rights activists--joined the gatherings. Sometimes the meetings got rowdy, as different interests and beliefs clashed and protests intensified. Still, the leaders struggled to keep the focus on the Bible, especially the prophetic texts from the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount.

By September, 1989, the police were clamping down on the gathering, and the number of arrests climbed. Police blocked all the streets to the church and checked everyone going to the prayer meetings. State authorities exerted pressure to cancel the services. Yet, the numbers grew until the 2,000 seats in the church were no longer sufficient.

Call for nonviolence

On October 7, 1989, police battered hundreds of peaceful protestors and hauled them off to jail. Two days later, at the October 9 prayer meeting, "there was a hideous show of force," said a pastor. Hundreds of soldiers, militia and police gathered outside, and 1,000 secret police were ordered to go inside to watch the worshippers.

The service ended with the bishop's blessing and an urgent call for nonviolence. The participants left the church, only to be met by tens of thousands of sympathizers waiting out in the streets. They all had candles in their hands. The silent march through the city began. The troops, unwilling to break up the peaceful demonstration, no matter what their orders, were drawn into the crowd and began to talk with the protesters. Then they withdrew.

A month later, on November 9, the Berlin Wall came down, and a new day began for East Germany. A member of the East German Central Committee said later, "We had planned everything, we were prepared for everything--but not for candles and prayers."

The pastor of the church said, "These people (secret police) heard Jesus Christ's gospel, which they didn't know, in a church where they were out of their depth."

The tourist guidebook to Leipzig is unequivocal--the peaceful revolution in East Germany came about through the power of prayer: "In 1989, open criticism of the regime began in the form of Monday prayers in the St. Nicholas Church, culminating in a peaceful march by 50,000 people on October 9. The slogans 'No violence' amd 'We are the people' prevented the imminent civil war--and just one month later, the border was opened. A new era began."

The prayers for peace continue at the St Nicholas Church. The church has also set up programs for the unemployed and for immigrants, to ease the hardships of transition into the new political reality.

Thus, as the congregational literature puts it, this 12th-century church remains what it has always been: "a house of Jesus, a house of hope, a refuge and cell of the new departure".

Margaret Loewen Reimer is associate editor of Mennonite Reporter. Reprinted, with permission, from Mennonite Reporter.

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