The churches contributed to the peaceful revolution in central and eastern Europe as well as to the ending of the apartheid regime in southern Africa, says Konrad Raider. Now the ecumenical movement has accepted the challenge to overcome violence as its special vocation.

Germany's political and church leaders have marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November with an ecumenical service at the Protestant church in eastern Berlin which played a key role in the events.

The political and social shock waves caused by weeks of pro-democracy protests in East Germany followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, were felt around the world, says Stephen Brown. They still resonate today, and have important theological implications.

A prayer service for peace in the East German city of Leipzig exactly 20 years ago triggered the chain of events that a month later led to the opening of the Berlin Wall.

An East German Protestant who played a big role in the movement that led to the end of communism and the Berlin Wall in 1989, has warned against the church becoming seduced by the "friendly embrace" of capitalism.