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Faith, Courage and Life Together in Difficult Times

This service marks the 80th anniversary of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer's death on 9 April 1945 and was recorded at the Bonhoeffer Church in London.

This service marks the 80th anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffers death on the 9th of April 1945 and was recorded at the Bonhoeffer Church in London. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian, pastor, writer who fought for justice towards all people but especially the persecuted Jews in Germany. He was captured and imprisoned in DzԲü a Nazi concentration camp in Bavaria, Germany, and killed just weeks before the end of the war. The Bishop of Chelmsford Guli Francis-Dehqani and Dr Krish Kandiah explore Bonhoeffers legacy.

Poem - Who Am I by Dietrich Bonhoeffer read by Actor Tom Hanks.

Music:
St Matthew’s Passion -Munchener Bach Orchestra
A Mighty Fortress is our God - The Cambridge Singers
Were You There When They Crucified my Lord - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Go Down Moses - Mica Paris
The Bonhoeffer cantata composed by Frederick Brandes Choir master of the Bonhoeffer choir, performed the Bonhoeffer choir.

Producer:
Carmel Lonergan

Technical Production:
Milo Dwek
Phillip Halliwell

Editor:
Tim Pemberton

38 minutes

Last on

Sun 6 Apr 2025 08:10

Programme Script

Announcement

Sunday Worship this morning was recorded at the Bonhoeffer Church in London led by the Bishop of Chelmsford Guli Francis-Dehqani and Dr Krish Kandiah. Celebrating the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer ahead of the 80th anniversary of his death. Opening with Bonhoeffers words on Grace read by Bishop Guli Francis – Dehqani .

MUSIC

Bach’s St Matthew Passion -Munchener Bach orchestra et al

INTROS

BISHOP GULI:

“Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it cost God the life of his Son, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”

KRISH: These are some of the most famous words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian, pastor, and resistor who stood courageously against the evils of the Nazi regime, challenging both the political and religious institutions of his day to act with compassion and justice towards all people but especially the persecuted Jews in Germany.

BISHOP GULI: That stand made Bonhoeffer a target. Eventually he was captured and imprisoned. 80 years ago today, he was in DzԲü a Nazi concentration camp in Bavaria, Germany, near the Czech border, desperately holding on to the rumours that the war was about to end.

KRISH: Welcome to our special service this morning. My name is Krish Kandiah, and I’m here at the Bonhoeffer Church in South London with Bishop Guli and Pastor Silke Halfmann . Bonhoeffer was once the pastor here, inside, there is a collection of his letters and papers. People come from all over the world to study these archives and to learn from his life and legacy.

BISHOP GULI: As Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat in his cell in DzԲü, not knowing whether he would live or die, he wrote often to his family and his friends. In one of those letters he explains how he found great solace in the words of our first hymn this morning.

This hymn, inspired by Psalm 46, embodies themes of God’s protection and steadfastness, which resonated deeply with Bonhoeffer during his resistance against the Nazi regime.

SONG

Performed by The Cambridge Singers

PRAYER

Dear Lord,

Help us to spread love not hate, help us to understand how to communicate our differences.

Oh Lord, let us channel the voice of Bonhoeffer, to give us fresh vision and renewed compassion.

Help us to hear through him your voice calling us to love our neighbour, welcome the stranger, and extend hope and hospitality to those who are persecuted.

Amen

KRISH: Dietrich Bonhoeffer earned his doctorate at just 21 years old with a ground-breaking dissertation exploring the church as a living, active community of believers.

Following this he received a prestigious sponsorship to go to the US where he was mentored by America’s leading theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and think more deeply about the relationship between Christianity, the church and society. While he was in New York a friend of his introduced him to his black Baptist church in Harlem. Bonhoeffer immersed himself in the life of this congregation, occasionally preaching and teaching Sunday School.

I spoke to Regie Williams, theologian and associate Professor of Christian Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary, in Chicago Illinois. He is also the author of a book called Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus. I asked him why it was that

Bonhoeffer, a white German theologian, found such a spiritual home at that Baptist Church in Harlem and what he learned there.

REGIE: Not transcribed

BG: Let’s continue our worship with a song that Bonhoeffer learned to love at this point in his life.

SONG

by Sister Rosetta Tharpe

INTERVIEW

KRISH: It was reflection on the crucifixion of Jesus that became a key aspect of Bonhoeffer’s theology. It enabled him to recognise the great cost to Christian discipleship. That cost included renouncing privilege, opposing injustice and standing in solidarity with the weak and marginalised.

Bonhoeffer expressed solidarity with the Jewish people as they were blamed for the evils in German society, as they were persecuted and imprisoned and as they were exterminated in the gas chambers. Bonhoeffer also got personally involved in hands-on rescue operations seeking to help Jewish people flee to safety.

BISHOP GULI: Bonhoeffer’s reflections on the crucifixion of Jesus also came to help him personally. On the 16th July 1944 in a letter to his friend Ebehard Bethge, he explained that this unique aspect of the Christian faith was vital, saying “Only the suffering God can help”.

Our reading today from Peter’s first letter perhaps inspired a dawning of truth for Bonhoeffer.

READING

1 Peter 3:14-18

Even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.“Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answerto everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing goodthan for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered oncefor sins,the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.He was put to death in the bodybut made alive in the Spirit.

REFLECTION

Krish

One of the things that strikes me most about Bonhoeffer was that he was bitterly disappointed by the response of the majority of German churches. Many embraced Nazi ideologies. Gerhard Kittel, for example, theologian and author of one of the most well-known and used Bible Dictionaries, joined the Nazi party and became a keen advocate for Nazism and antisemitism saying: “we are fighting for a German Christianity against the spirit of the Jewish legalistic morality.”

There was such widespread compromise that Bonhoeffer, with the help of the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, called for a resistance movement from churches and started a breakaway community they called the “confessing church.”Not many of German churches joined.

Despite the abject failure of many German Christian leaders and churches to recognise the evils of Nazism, let alone stand against it, Bonhoeffer remained absolutely committed to the truth of the gospel, the power of grace and the mission of the church.

In an underground makeshift seminary called Finkenwalde, he wrote a book called “Life Together” which celebrates the vitality of the church. Bishop Guli has been very moved by this book and offers us her reflections now.

SERMONETTE Bishop Guli

Over eighty years since the end of the Second World War, Europe finds itself once again living under the shadow of conflict. Once more there is fear, with uncertainty about where this might lead. Together with countless other wars around the world, those that make the headlines, and those more hidden but no less violent, the world feels like a precarious place.

In times like this, what is the calling of the Church? Perhaps it is simply to concentrate on being authentic to its true self. To build up the community around the fundamentals of faith and model a way of being that offers something distinct from the ways of the world, that demonstrates compassion, reconciliation, unity; those things that should underpin life together in any Christian community.

It is with these things that Bonhoeffer is concerned in much of his writings – how to live well together – and his reflections make rich pickings for those of us eavesdropping on his thoughts all these years later.

In our age of individualism where identity politics, populism, fake news and the subjectivity of truth have led to a fracturing of society, polarised opinions are often expressed with scant regard or respect for others. Wider society, as well as the Church, seems often to be struggling with disunity and there is little respect for any who are considered to be in positions of authority. The voices of the extremes are the loudest, the middle ground has been hollowed out and the space for nuance and deep listening appears to be lost.

The Apostle Peter, no stranger to life marked by division, persecution, and political conflict, writes to the church seven vital words that offer us common ground. He says: “In your hearts revere Christ as Lord.” Only Christ is worthy of our allegiance. Jesus did not lead with displays of power, violence, or status. He led from a position of weakness and vulnerability. He is a leader who himself has suffered and lets us know, without a shadow of doubt, that those of us who follow in his footsteps will also suffer.

This was Bonhoeffer’s experience. He too leads from a place of vulnerability. And it is out of this experience that he encourages individual Christians not only to develop their own faith but also, and always, to lean in towards a positive expression of common life.

Today, sometimes it seems like we are too busy trying to fix the Church; trying to find solutions and control our way into some imagined future where the Church has regained her influence and grown in size. But in truth, the Church has seldom been at its best when it’s been largest or most powerful. This doesn’t mean sitting back and doing nothing; it means we continue being faithful, discerning how best to love God and neighbour in our particular context, and trusting God to guide us into the future. As such, it is through persecuted communities around the world, who continue against all odds, that we often see the strongest testament to God’s faithfulness.

As an antidote to the scourge of individualism, which turns out not to be as attractive as many in the West might have imagined and fails to offer the hoped for panacea, the notion of community is gaining some ground in 21st century Europe. Communities of all shapes and sizes, virtual or physical, bring together like minded people who share interests and beliefs, offering mutual support and encouragement. Whilst these may well bring comfort and a sense of shared purpose, they can fail to take account of the richness and complexity of human life. They might be unifying for those who are insiders but often they are set up in opposition to others, clear about what they are not just as much as what they are. These communities have hard boundaries defining who is in and who is not, based on shared belief or identity further solidified by the echo chambers of social media, and fuelled by polarised voices in binary opposition.

But Bonhoeffer imagines a whole different kind of community. One where, in Christ, all other distinctions and divisions fall away. A community with porous boundaries and blurred edges where anyone who proclaims the name of Christ can find a place. This is nothing new, of course, and Christians have known this to be true for millennia. And yet, we have found it deeply challenging to live out. But we must continue to strive for it, because it is this sort of generous welcoming open community that has something meaningful to offer the fractured world we live in.

READING: Psalm 103

Praise theLord,my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise theLord,my soul,
and forget notall his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and healsall your diseases,
who redeems your lifefrom the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfiesyour desires with good things
so that your youth is renewedlike the eagle’s.

TheLordworks righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

He made knownhis waysto Moses,
his deedsto the people of Israel:
TheLordis compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.


Hymn

performed by Mica Paris

Bishop Guli

Thank you Pastor Silke for welcoming us today as we celebrate Dietrich Bonhoeffer what artifacts do you have? Silke to show a few and talk about the impact of Bonhoeffer.

Talk about what they look like what’s the significance of such artifacts?

Here is our Baptismal Register, where you can see the two baptisms that Bonhoeffer himself recorded in his own handwriting—one signed in pen, the other in pencil.

Here we have a small printed book, Schöpfung und Fall (Creation and Fall), written by Bonhoeffer.

Our most precious artefact: Bonhoeffer’s personal copy of Thomas à Kempis’s Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ). He read this book while imprisoned in DzԲü concentration camp in the months leading up to his execution.


Bishop Guli

Continuing the legacy and immortalising Bonhoeffer in film,

Todd Komernicki director of Sully and producer of ELF has recently released his film Bonhoeffer and he talks about why this film is so important now.

Todd speaks no transcript

Silke :The Lord's PrayerLet us pray together as Jesus has taught us.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.

Self intro

Im Frederick Brandes Choir master of the Bonhoeffer chor. I wrote this piece the Bonhoeffer cantata to commemorate both the 80th anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as the 150th anniversary of the congregation of this, which is so central to keeping up German traditions and bringing the German community of South East London together.

Music Bonhoefferkantate by Frederick Brandes Choir master of the Bonhoeffer choir, performed by the Bonhoeffer choir.

KRISH: Just three weeks before the end of the war, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed. But he lives on in his writings. Books such as the one I have here in my hands, The Cost of Discipleship, challenge us to embrace a costly, authentic faith—a faith that prioritizes Christ over comfort, courage over conformity, and community over conflict.

BISHOP GULI: Bonhoeffer’s life matters because it reminds us that even in the darkest moments of history, light can shine through those who dare to speak up for love, truth and justice. Bonhoeffer’s legacy is a call to every Christian to be bold, faithful, and unshakable in their commitment to Christ, no matter the cost. It is a difficult call, one which Bonhoeffer himself struggled with particularly as he sat in his cell in Flossenburg. We end with a poem that he wrote there shortly before he died. Its read today by actor and Film maker tom Hanks.

POEM read by Tom Hanks

WHO AM I

Who am I?They often tell me

I would step from my cell’s confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I would talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me
I would bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,
trembling with anger at despotism and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from a victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

Back anno:That was Tom Hanks reading the Poem Who am I written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The producer was Carmel Lonergan


Broadcast

  • Sun 6 Apr 2025 08:10

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