Last year we had a sermon series about the Apostle’s Creed. During August this year I will look at a more recent confession, the Barmen Declaration of 1934. As many other confessions, it was the result of a crisis in the Church. In this case, the crisis was the attempted take-over of the German churches by the Nazi state. The churches in Germany at the time responded in various ways to the takeover of the government in Germany by the Nationalist Socialist Party and the subsequent changes in society and the church. Some welcomed the changes enthusiastically, others opposed them vehemently. Various statements were issued by different church groups throughout that period. In 1934, the representatives of various churches and groups within the Church that opposed Nazi ideology and the attempted state take-over of the Church came together in Barmen, a suburb of Wuppertal in Germany. There they agreed on the Theological Declaration of Barmen, which was widely promulgated. Out of all the statements of the German church struggle, this declaration has proved to be the most enduring and most relevant across different situations. It is seen as one of the key confessions of the 20^th century. It is part of the constitution of German Protestant churches. It has also been included in the Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is one of the statements of faith of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church. While not part of the Anglican Church, the Barmen Declaration has also had some influence here.

Next year I hope to get to the 39 Articles of Religion, which form the basis of the Anglican confession.