The synod of the church district decided at its annual meeting, after a controversial debate, to submit an application to the regional church to achieve a corresponding amendment to the flag regulation. The goal is to allow the hoisting of all flags that "have no commercial, promotional, discriminatory, or partisan background."
This is intended to grant municipalities "more diversity and freedom to promote tolerance and charity as well as Christian symbols to the world," said Annette Vollmer, one of the applicants, during the introduction. According to the current flag display regulations of the Protestant Church in Germany, only the church flag featuring the purple cross on a white background is permitted on church flagpoles. Supporters of the proposal argue that this is no longer appropriate. "The church should show what it thinks, even if it is provocative, but always with the purple cross in the conceptual background," emphasized Pastor Volker Bier from the telephone counseling service. Critics fear abuse in the weakening of the currently very restrictive legal situation and called for historical awareness.
The background of the flag regulation from 1947 was the instrumentalization of church flagpoles during the Nazi era, combined with the high symbolic significance of the church flag, which had been raised in some places as a symbol of resistance.
If the legislative amendment is supported by the Protestant Church in the Rhineland and the Evangelical Church in Germany, soon, in addition to the church flag, for example, the rainbow flag could also be flying.
