# Der Junge Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_September 1950_S36
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Page 36                                            September 1950                                            Number 9

[Image: drawing of young people in conversation – heading "We speak our minds"]

The letters published here represent the opinion of the sender. They are not endorsed in every point by the editorial staff. In the case of letters to the editorial staff, consent to full or partial publication is assumed, unless the sender expresses other wishes. The editorial staff reserves the right in every case to shorten submissions according to editorial necessity.

Participation in territorial-church youth groups?

Not many readers have expressed themselves on this question. But from the side of the CVJM [Young Men's Christian Association] a sharply worded statement has reached the editorial staff, which objects to the remarks of Lutz Poetsch in No. 5 of our paper and calls them misleading. We invited the spokesman of the CVJM to send us a factual correction of the statements by Lutz Poetsch that he objected to. For this reason the editorial staff's position had once again been postponed. Since no answer has arrived from the side of the CVJM up to this day, we are bringing the discussion on the question of participation in CVJM and territorial-church youth groups to a close in this issue of our paper, by first publishing below a submission from a reader of our paper, and then setting forth our own opinion.

Wilhelm Frank holds the following view:

This question, which was posed in No. 3, was illuminated and answered from two sides in No. 5. While C. E. advises that young people who have no opportunity to attend the youth hours of our church should calmly join territorial-church youth groups, Lutz Poetsch publishes the essential features, goals and working methods of the CVJM, which make it appear very questionable for a faithfully Lutheran Christian to join as a member.

Both are indeed right, yet both are mistaken. The sister organization of the CVJM is not the M.B.K. but the CVJFM (Christian Association of Young Women and Girls), which is affiliated with the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association).

The M.B.K. is a territorial-church youth group for female youth.
Similar groups also exist for male youth, though in many places these have given up their own work in favor of the CVJM. Only in Lutheran territorial churches have these groups partly survived.
In contrast to these groups, which are merely a loose association within the framework of the church, the CVJM (and CVJFM) is an association with registered members that stands outside the church, but works together in a friendly manner with the member churches of the EKD [Evangelical Church in Germany].
As for participation in territorial-church youth groups, I am in agreement with C. E. here, but would like to leave it at a "may" and not turn it into a "should."
With the CVJM, matters stand differently.