No Christmas in Italy?

Imagine a December without seasonal decor, special treats, parties with friends, or a nativity. In other words, imagine a December without Christmas.

For many evangelicals in Italy, that is exactly how it should be.

Not celebrating Christmas — nor Easter — is a way to distinguish themselves from a Catholic holiday that they feel has lost any real meaning or focus on Jesus. It is a way, they say, to assert their identity by opposition to the status quo.

According to a 2023 survey by Ipsos (a France-based research center), over two-thirds of Italy’s residents are Christian (68%), with 61% saying they are Catholic, just 4% Protestant, and 3% identifying as “other Christians.” Over a quarter of Italians are non-religious (28%).

Evangelicals in Italy feel that as a small minority, Christian identity has been largely defined not by who they are, but who they are not — not Roman Catholic, not theologically liberal, not culturally secular. “In such a situation, evangelicals feel a need to better assert their identity based on core Gospel essentials rather than on cultural features,” says JD Gilmore, a church planter in Palermo and coordinator of Impatto (Acts 29 in Italy).

That is why Donato Trovarelli says he skips the aperitivi, the Christmas eel, the panettone and other trappings of what is often held up as Christianity’s biggest holiday. The charismatic author of three books says traditions in Italy have nothing to do with “born again” evangelicals. That is why, Trovarelli says evangelicals and Pentecostals like him “drive out of our places of worship all the traditions of the tree, the nativity scene, the figure of Santa Claus, Jesus as a child, and every other popular tradition of any non-Christian nature or religion.”

That Europe May Know

The goal is audacious. But as far as James Davis, founder of the Global Church Network, is concerned, Christians need deadlines. Otherwise, they will never do what they need to do to fulfill the Great Commission.

His group gathered in Zurich, Switzerland, last September with 400 ministry leaders from across Europe who committed to raising up and equipping more than 100,000 new pastors in the next decade. The network plans to establish 39 hubs in Europe, with a goal of 442 more in the years to come, for training church planters, evangelists, and pastors to proclaim the gospel.

“A vision becomes a goal when it has a deadline,” Davis said at the event.

“So many Christian leaders today doubt their beliefs and believe their doubts. It is time for us to doubt our doubts and believe our beliefs. We will claim, climb, and conquer our Mount Everest, the Great Commission.”

Davis has a number of very motivated partners in this project, including the Assemblies of God, the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), and the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. The network also counts The Wesleyan Church, the Church of the Nazarene, the Foursquare Church, the Church of God in Christ, and OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship) as members of a broader coalition working to complete the Great Commission in the near future. If it turns out their European goal is a bit beyond reach, they will still undoubtedly do a lot between now and their deadline.

And the Global Church Network is not alone. In Germany, the Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden (Association of Free Church Pentecostals) has announced plans to plant 500 new churches by 2033. The group, celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2024, told CT it is currently planting new congregations at a rate of about seven per year. Raising up new pastors is key to its growth strategy. 

And the Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland (Association of Free Evangelical Churches in Germany) has planted 200 churches in the past decade. It has grown to about 500 congregations with 42,000 members. The Free Evangelicals also have plans to launch 70 new churches by 2030, at a rate of 15 per year, and then start another 200 by 2040. 

“Goal setting is a bit of a thing in Europe,” said Stefan Paas, the J. H. Bavinck Chair for Missiology and Intercultural Theology at the Free University of Amsterdam and the author of Church Planting in the Secular West.

He’s not convinced it’s a good thing for Christian missions, though. In fact, he doesn’t think ambition, verve, and goal setting actually work.

Paas’s research shows that supply-side approaches—the idea that if you plant it, they will come—seem promising and often demonstrate early success, but the results mostly evaporate. While it is widely believed that planting new churches causes growth, he said, that’s not what the evidence shows.

“Yes, newer churches tend to draw in more people and more converts, but they also lose more,” Paas told CT. “There’s a backdoor dynamic where people come into newer churches but then leave.”

He examined the Free Evangelicals’ membership statistics from 2003 to 2017 and found that church plants often correlated with quick growth but then slow decline. 

“It’s one thing to draw people, and another thing to keep them,” he said. 

Dealing with Diversity in Europe’s Classrooms

Across Europe, teachers are coming to terms with increasingly diverse classrooms.

While diversity has long been a feature on the continent, a growing medley of religious, cultural, and linguistic influences — brought on by international and intra-Europe migration — has created both opportunities and challenges across Europe’s educational landscape.

According to a 2017 European Union report, increased numbers of refugee, asylum seeker, and migrant children — as of January 2019, 4.9% (21.8 million) of the European Union’s (EU) 446.8 million residents, were non-EU-27 citizens — have placed pressure on schools and teachers to “re-consider their everyday practices and strategies to meet” a range of diverse learning needs.

As teachers aspire for full participation from all pupils, recent studies suggest that public issues of intolerance and social exclusion are showing up in schools as well.

Taking these challenges into consideration, a group of experts at a December 2017 workshop on Interreligious Education in Europe in Vienna, Austria, co-hosted by KAICIID, decided to establish the Network for Dialogue.

Djuríc Milovanović: "Active Policies For Newcomers In Host Society Are Required"

Made up of members of top religious groups, civil society organizations, and higher education institutions, the Network for Dialogue is a Europe-wide, KAICIID-supported platform engaging a range of policy issues related to refugee integration and interreligious dialogue.

KAICIID's lead representative with the Network for Dialogue, Dr. Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, said migration statistics and worrying reports about social inclusion, “require active policies for newcomers in a host society.”

Formal education, she said, is a crucial component of this process. “Gaps exist at many levels, but we are aware of particular shortcomings and current challenges in formal education settings,” said Djurić Milovanović Already, there are grassroots dialogue efforts that are aiming to fill those gaps, said Djuríc Milovanović. “However, not all of them are linked to the formal education structures or able to bring change at the policy level,” she said.

The Network for Dialogue is working with these groups and individuals, supporting their initiatives and helping them collaborate with policymakers.

“In order to bring about substantial change, these voices from the ground need to provide recommendations and advise policymakers in creating schemes and implementing strategies at institutional levels,” said Djurić Milovanović.

There are a variety of challenges that policymakers and practitioners need to face, she said.

“Despite increasing diversity in European classrooms, teaching and other educational professions tend to be fairly homogenous and teachers often lack training in intercultural and interreligious awareness and skills,” she said.

Because of this, Djurić Milovanović said, “migrant students lack sufficient support to cater to their needs and often display lower academic resilience and are at higher-risk for anxiety and struggling with psychological wellbeing.”

In a draft policy brief, the Network for Dialogue recommended several next steps to address such obstacles. These included proposing that educational leaders should engage parents of migrant children in school activities as equal partners and not only as beneficiaries, fast-track qualification and accreditation schemes for teachers with migrant and refugee backgrounds, and the creation of curriculum and training programmes on cultural diversity, religious literacy, social inclusion, intercultural education, and interreligious dialogue.

Waseem Haddad, KAICIID Programme Manager for Iraq and Syria, is encouraged by the Network for Dialogue’s work in Europe and recommendations for the future.

Education, he said, constitutes a primary space for the formation of identity.

“Critical thinking skills, awareness of diversity, and the practice of informed decision making, and civic participation can be acquired and practiced at this level,” he said, “If these skills and values are not transmitted in education, adults and children will face major challenges in accepting difference and celebrating ethnic, religious and cultural commonalties.”

Haddad also emphasised the importance of religious education in developing a generation’s recognition and acceptance of “the other” regardless of differences in religion, language, or culture.

To that end, both Djuríc Milovanović and Haddad might be encouraged by a new initiative in Austria.

Austrian Pilot Project Supports Christian-Islamic Team Teaching In Schools

Funded by the Austrian Scientific Fund (FWF) for a period of three years, the “Christian-Islamic Religious Education in Team Teaching” pilot project was developed to support Christian and Muslim teachers teaching their religious education classes together, at the same time, in the same classroom.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Weirer, theology professor at the University of Graz and leader of the project team, said that while there are no “typical lesson plans” — as each lesson is planned by the teachers themselves — both similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam are addressed.

“In this context, it is important for us that the pupils experience in class that religion can be discussed in an appreciative way and that differences do not have to be faded out,” he said.

The aim of this mutual encounter, Weirer said, is “to question prejudices through the encounter with people from different religious backgrounds and, if necessary, to reduce existing fears and discrimination.”

In addition to supporting the project’s teachers, Weirer and his team analyse additional aspects of interreligious education, including legal opportunities and frameworks to conduct interreligious cooperation initiatives between different schools, competencies and attitudes of teaching personnel, and learning conditions that must exist in order to encourage encounters between students of different religious backgrounds.

“Education does not necessarily promote social inclusion, but can also contribute to segregation”, Weirer said.

To encourage the former and prevent the latter, “it is a matter of developing targeted educational programs that promote pupils in their respective strengths and contribute to equal opportunities,” he said. “School can thus become a place where peaceful and constructive coexistence in a plural society can be experienced.”

For her part, Djurić Milovanović believes such experiences not only enrich the classroom, but society at large. She believes efforts like that of the Network for Dialogue or the pilot project in Austria can create a “chain of positive change.” “All these small micro changes in the classroom of one teacher may seem irrelevant or very small or invisible,” said Djuríc Milovanović, “but we need to empower teachers to feel like they're a crucial element in bringing about positive change in society.”

“Teachers need to have the perspective that encounters with diversity in the classroom can open up a space for dialogue” she said, “and they play a vital role in teaching dialogue to not only their classroom, but to the continent as a whole.”

"Said & Lody": Combatting hate with a one-two punch in Amsterdam

A Dutch rabbi and a Moroccan boxer walk down the streets of Amsterdam – what may sound like the beginning of a joke has formed the basis for one of the Netherlands’ most powerful interfaith partnerships.

A prominent leader in Holland’s Jewish community, Rabbi Lody B. van de Kamp is a former politician, and a member of the KAICIID-supported Muslim Jewish Leadership Council. In contrast, Said Bensellam recalls being a Moroccan youth from the borough of Bos en Lommer, adrift before he was admitted to the local kickboxing school. Today he is a self-made youth-worker and role model for his community, having been voted “Amsterdammer of the Year” in 2007.

Together, they form the duo “Said and Lody,” working to counter anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in their community – an inclusive partnership forged in the fires of hate and discrimination.

Bensellam and van de Kamp trace their first meeting back to a Nazi salute.

In 2010, while van de Kamp was serving as director of an Orthodox Jewish school in Amsterdam, he received complaints from students who reported facing discrimination and racial slurs during their daily walks home. Wanting to see for himself, van de Kamp and a partner brought a film crew on a 10 hour walk through the streets of Amsterdam. Both men wore traditional kippahs (head coverings for Jewish men).

During the walk, they encountered two explicit incidents of hate. At first, they were called names. Then, a teenager stood up in front of his friends and raised his arm in a Nazi salute while staring at van de Kamp.

The incident made national news and prompted renewed debates about integration, anti-Semitism and Muslims in Dutch society. Watching at home, Bensellam decided he had to do something on behalf of his community.

“After talking with Dutch authorities, I received a second call about the video,” said van de Kamp. “It was Said and he was asking me, ‘how can we solve this together?’” After much discussion, Bensellam reached out to the teenager, encouraging him to meet with van de Kamp. He then facilitated a reconciliation between them.

Said Bensellam makes up half the “Said & Lody” duo, fighting prejudice and discrimination in Holland. (PHOTO: KAICIID Communications)

The incident marked the beginning of a fruitful 10-year partnership. But, at times, Bensellam and van de Kamp admit they have faced an uphill battle. Over the last decade, the Netherlands has had to confront numerous public incidents of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Jews and Muslims have faced both physical and symbolic dangers from wide sectors of society.

According to experts, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are not distinct phenomena, but instead often reinforce one another in a twisting helix of hate. For example, anti-Semitism within the Muslim community can exacerbate Islamophobia in Dutch society as a whole and, in turn, embolden elements of the public to express anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic rhetoric side-by-side.

From the beginning, Bensellam and van de Kamp’s primary motivation has been to ensure that hostility is not allowed to fester in their communities. “How can we make sure that antipathy doesn’t arise? That hate doesn’t grow?” van de Kamp asked. “Our answer was that our communities do not know each other.”

Bensellam and van de Kamp started with their own friendship and invited others to join them. They also reached out to youth in each community who were facing exclusion and discrimination. Working with schools, government agencies, and religious institutions, the two men found a willingness and welcoming hospitality to work together on both sides.

Perhaps an unlikely pair, Said and Lody are more than collaborators, but friends. (PHOTO: KAICIID Communications)

Over the past decade, van de Kamp says there have been countless stories of inclusion and reconciliation. For example, when a group of Muslim boys were found playing football in one of Amsterdam’s historical Jewish cemeteries, “Said and Lody” reached out to help them make amends.

“The police got involved because a cemetery is usually not a place for football,” van de Kamp said, “but when Said asked the boys what they were willing to do to make things right, they said they would clean the cemetery.”

Bensellam and van de Kamp took the offer a step further, inviting 20 Jewish youth to join the 20 Muslim youth in their clean-up initiative. “The idea wasn’t just to clean, it was to bring the two communities together. To have a common project. To get to know one another as we worked together,” van de Kamp said.  

Dr. Matthew Kaemingk, professor of ethics who has written on Christian-Muslim relations in the country, says that in order to defend against stereotypes, misinformation, and aggression, different religious subcultures in the Netherlands must come together.

Referring to “Said and Lody,” Kaemingk said, “Judaism and Islam are profoundly different theologically, culturally, and politically. The temptation to ignore those differences is very real. They have to find ways to collaborate across their deep differences.”

Neither Bensellam nor van de Kamp deny these dividing lines. Still, they emphasise how their friendship has led to meaningful discussions and a lot of laughs along the way. “It’s not comedy, it’s just conversation. It’s not a formal dialogue, it’s not a system. It’s just getting to know each other. Being there for each other. When you live life together, it’s organic,” van de Kamp said.

It’s also contagious. Following “Said and Lody’s” example of reaching out to one another in times of crisis, a group of Dutch Muslims recently brought flowers to a Jewish retirement home in order to help elderly individuals suffering from loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This makes van de Kamp proud. “It’s not hard to reproduce the ‘Said and Lody system,’ if you want to call it that. This kind of work is not a luxury these days, it’s a necessity. What we do, anyone can do it,” he said.  

“And,” he emphasised, “they should be doing it.”

As societies across the world address the challenges and opportunities of globalisation, multi-ethnic communities, and alterations in national identity, Bensellam and van de Kamp’s influence has begun to extend beyond the Netherlands too.

When Dr. Amy Peloff and Dr. Nicolaas P. Barr of the University of Washington in the United States brought a group of 18 study abroad students to Amsterdam in June 2019, they spent an afternoon with van de Kamp. Barr said the students were struck by his gentleness, presence, and candor.

When it comes to dialogue between communities, I think that what Rabbi Lody embodies is the willingness to show up in a real way with, and for, others,” Barr said.

Barr says that although this doesn’t magically solve all disagreements, “it shows a willingness to hear where people are coming from, and building relationships with others, even if you don't agree on every single issue.”

Refugee Converts Aren’t ‘Fraudsters': the Fraught Politics of Convert Asylum in Germany

When you visit Trinity Lutheran Church in the Berlin district of Steglitz you’re going to meet a lot of different people, from all over the world: the German woman who thinks Mississippi is the greatest place in the world, the family from Bangladesh who comes to the English-language service every other week, the pastor — Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martens — who has learned Farsi in addition to English and German in order to minister to his community.

Then, you might get to know the hundreds of men and women who have found sanctuary at Trinity, seeking to remain in Germany and not be sent home to places as diverse as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere.

This is a community whose lives are in limbo. They’ve applied for asylum on the basis of their conversion to Christianity and they claim that they will face religious, social, and political repercussions if forced to return to their countries of origin. Some fear for their lives.

Between 20,000 and 40,000 refugees are seeking asylum in Germany on the grounds of religious persecution because of their conversion to Christianity, according to a 2019 Open Doors report. Amid sharp national debates about anti-refugee sentiment, religious literacy, and religious freedom, a number of evangelical leaders have called for changes to the process of officially evaluating refugee conversion.

Currently, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) judges the sincerity of conversion and the severity of potential threats to asylum seekers’ lives. There is, however, a lack of explicit standards, clear criteria, or legal precedent for these examinations, and the BAMF grants asylum at significantly different rates in different parts of the country.

To say the least, this issue is fraught with multiple angles, opinions, and perspectives to consider. The process is mired by Islamophobic assumptions, a supposedly secular and neutral state making decisions in matters of religion, and the messy and mysterious question of “authentic faith.”

But for those seeking asylum, the issue is clear — “I’ve converted and my conversion puts my life, and the lives of those I love, in danger. I need asylum in Germany.”

Reporting on the topic for Christianity Today, I spoke with refugee converts, local pastors, evangelical leaders, scholars of Islamic law, government ministers, immigration authorities, and everyday Germans about how the issues around the question of judging asylum cases might be untangled.

The end result is that there is no clear answer, no silver bullet, no rubric that can be universally applied. Blame for the inefficiencies and failures of the process cannot be easily allocated — it isn’t an “Islam” problem, a secular government problem, or an evangelical Christian problem. It’s a shared problem, one that must activate multiple stakeholders with varying perspectives, postures, and positions on faith, the state, and religious freedom.

Nonetheless, in the course of my reporting, I did sense that there is the possibility for legal experts, politicians, government ministers, pastors, and religious actors to work together to seek the best solution for those involved.

These questions are not going to go away on their own. Instead, as the church body at Trinity Lutheran Church in Steglitz testifies, we are likely to continue to confront such questions in the years to come given the ongoing entanglement of people, traditions, and nations across the world.

Germany’s struggle offers a telling case-study for the issues we might encounter and the possibilities that lie before us. Perhaps, there is a “third way” that religious actors and the secular state can walk together to protect human rights and maintain peace and order.

Time will tell. For now, take a moment to explore an issue that is far more complex than it at first appears.