Germany's Top Protestant

For twelve stormy years, Berlin's crusty, goateed Bishop Otto Dibelius has been head of the German Evangelical Church, the last important institution in Germany that the Communists have not succeeded in dividing between "imperialist West" and "peace-loving East." Year after year, the Red regime chipped away at Protestant prerogatives, persecuted pastors, and drove thousands of others into flight to the West. They played on pacifist tendencies wherever they showed themselves and vilified outspoken anti-Communists as atom-happy militarists.

But through it all--sometimes striking back, sometimes rolling with the punches --Dibelius and E.K.D.* struggled to maintain a sense of unity among its 40 million Protestants. Thundering against Communist oppression from the East Berlin pulpit of the famed Marienkirche, Dibelius was a rallying point for German Protestantism.

Last week, at 80, Dibelius prepared to retire, and at his farewell appearance before the synod of his church, he once again stressed unity: "The most important thing is that we regard ourselves as one." The delegates took heed in deciding the delicate question before them: whom to elect as his successor.

A Slap or a Tickle. Some of Dibelius' extremism had embarrassed his colleagues -- as when he announced that as a Christian he did not feel obligated to obey even the speed laws of the godless East German regime -- and there were many who felt that his intransigence made life still harder for E.K.D. pastors under Communist control. The question before the synod: Should the delegates vote to continue Dibelius' policies by electing his deputy, Bishop Hanns Lilje, 61, an able preacher and administrator whose name is anathema to the Communists? Or should they find a candidate less provocative to the Reds?

Meeting in West Berlin's Spandau Johannesstift Building, the synod's 79 West German and 41 East German delegates had ample provocation to slap back at the Reds by choosing Lilje. The East German regime had just announced that no sessions of the annual Protestant rally, called Kirchentag, could be held in East Berlin next July, and had stopped Bishop Lilje and four other West German bishops on their way to a Sunday service at the Marienkirche. But the delegates decided that the immediate pleasure of electing Bishop Lilje might be offset by Communist reprisals during his six-year term. At the same time they rebuffed the Communists by refusing even a seat on the Evangelical Church's governing council to Bishop Moritz Mitzenheim of Thuringia, the nearest thing to a fellow traveler in E.K.D. 's top echelon.

Then, after three ballots and six interruptions for caucusing, the synod offered encouragement to the East-Zone faithful by electing the first resident of East Germany to hold the highest post in German Protestantism -- Dr. Curt Scharf of East Berlin.

Bit by Bit. A vigorous anti-Nazi during the Hitler regime, Curt Scharf, 58, was arrested numerous times and was rarely allowed to write or preach. Since 1945, he has been chairman of the Brandenburg Synod and is well known throughout Germany for his work in preparing the Kirchentag staged by the Evangelical Church to draw Protestants from all over the country.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Scharf trod circumspectly between East and West, hoping for "peace with everyone." In view of "the many crises besetting the church," he said, he would aim "not to find dramatic solutions, but to progress bit by bit." And for his motto, he chose the lines from Romans 12:12: "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer."

* Evangeliscfie Kirche in Deutschland.

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