heks

Relationships and project work with Reformed sister churches in eastern Europe and Italy are at the centre of interchurch cooperation. For decades HEKS has cultivated very close links with the Hungarian-speaking Reformed Church in Hungary, in the Siebenbürgen region of Romania and in Carpatho-Ukraine, and with the Protestant Church of Bohemian Brethren in the Czech Republic and the Waldensian Church in Italy.

HEKS supports diaconal projects such as the social welfare ministry of the Reformed Church in Romania, which provides home care for elderly and sick people in four districts in Siebenbürgen to help them to remain in their own homes. By providing building materials, HEKS contributes to the renovation of churches, community centres and holiday centres, in Chotěboř in the Czech Republic for example. After all, church life is not possible without the necessary infrastructure. Finally, HEKS provides targeted funding to train workers in church-based organisations. A ministry course for a pastor or training in addiction treatment for a worker in a church-run drug rehabilitation centre help the eastern European partner churches to offer a professional service.

Of central importance to interchurch cooperation is an active exchange at all levels between eastern European churches and parishes and those in Switzerland. The contacts that are cultivated in Reformed churches by having twinned parishes and group trips transcend borders and cultures.

The origins of interchurch cooperation go back to the aid provided by churches after the Second World War, when churches in the east and south of Europe were supported in their endeavours on behalf of disadvantaged sections of the population.