Liberation, reconciliation & friendship
A brief history of Guernsey Council of Churches’ connection to Biberach…
“The G. C. C. first made contact with Biberach when, following the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation, preparations began to hold the Week of German Reconciliation in 1997. A group from Biberach led by Dr. Hans-Peter Biege came that week and the following year Peter Lane and Rosemary Jagger returned their visit with a party of deportees. In 1999 a larger group from Biberach came to Guernsey again hosted by the Guernsey Deportees Association and the G. C. C. , and Frances & Peter Stanton went to Biberach later that year representing the G. C. C. Meantime the Mayor of Biberach had invited the Bailiff to visit them too with the idea of setting up a student exchange between Guernsey and Biberach. This culminated in the Deputy Bailiff, our Anglican & Roman Catholic Deans, Ken Wheeler, Head of St. Peter Port School and the Chairman & Members of the G. C. C. Executive making an official visit in October 2001.
The success, particularly of this last visit, prompted the G. C. C. , the Guernsey Deportees Association, Guernsey educationalists and various individuals who by now had made professional friendships, to try and combine as the Guernsey Friends of Biberach, the steering committee being under the chairmanship of Chris Day.”
By Michael Carre,
Chairman of the Guernsey Council of Churches, June, 2002
