Bishop Dr. Ring at Jewish ordination ceremony

Rabbi Dr. Walter Homolka 

On 23 November  five graduates of Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam Rabbis were ordained. The ordination ceremony was attended by Bishop Matthias Ring.

The Old Catholic Diocese has good and friendly relations with the Abraham Geiger College. The rector of the college, Dr. Walter Homolka, took part in the 2010 Episcopal consecration of Dr. Matthias Ring in Karlsruhe and spoke a word of blessing. The Pastoral Synod in Bad Herrenalb in 2000, took place  in the presence of Chief Rabbi Dr. Homolka, a clear acknowledgment of guilt for the failure of the Old Catholic Church in the era of National Socialism. The then Bishop Joachim VoBB then said in his speech to launch the request for forgiveness: "It was not just the fault of this or that Christians, this or that Old Catholics, the personal debt that the parties must agree with themselves or had . There was and is also the fault of the institution and its official representatives in official mission! It was founded by pastors and synodal bodies here and there hailed the dawn of the new era! It was the public position of some abused for praise of the leader. ... It was not stopped even before the Holy: Chance were sermons misused for propaganda, sacraments, to the exclusion of "Bishop VoBB emphasized at the time, with a few exceptions had to find a reasonably bold statements or at least clear delineation attempts of the Church in the period in question compared to the Nazis in vain. Bishop Matthias Ring has written a dissertation published in 2008 about the Old Catholic Church in Germany in the era of National Socialism.