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Small church, high risk of infection: what to do at Christmas in the middle of the pandemic?
(Archive image)
Photo:
Peter Gercke / picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentralbild
Pastor Matthias Lemme is confident.
In a good mood, the pastor of the Protestant Christian Church in the west of Hamburg reports on the anti-corona measures that his team has introduced since the beginning of the pandemic.
"We celebrate Christmas according to the motto 'Eleven times a hundred' - that means that we celebrate eleven Christ Vespers with a hundred people each over the holidays."
Almost all services are already fully booked, there are long waiting lists for the few places.
Registration is digital, the believers simply have to print out their personalized tickets.
There are no special controls of the hygiene measures, says Lemme.
"But our sexton sometimes plays police when a mask slips too low."
Since the first lockdown in March, the Christian church has had a mask requirement and strict hygiene rules.
There is no longer any loud singing, the big Sunday service was split into three small ones at 9, 10 and 11 a.m.
The Lord's Prayer is still spoken aloud - a prayer that is only whispered or low-aerosol as a precaution is quite conceivable for Christmas.
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Pastor Matthias Lemme in the Hamburg Christian Church
Photo: private
Sufficient space is provided in the large church.
The baroque building stands in the middle of a park, just a few meters from the Altona balcony.
From here you have a wide view of the cranes of the container port, the Köhlbrand Bridge, and underneath the sluggishly flowing Elbe.
The interior of the house of God is bright and inviting, to the left of the altar is a wing, in front of which is a hodgepodge of chairs, all at a distance of at least one and a half meters.
"I'm good at short formats"
The house of God is a mixture of temple and living room, which goes down well with the rather better-off clientele in the Ottensen district.
Here it is considered cool to go to church services or sing in one of the excellent choirs.
The congregation has upgraded digitally, offering a podcast, a newsletter, a nativity play recording and singing videos with the cantor.
The sermons for the net are recorded directly in the church in order to preserve the authentic sound.
Seven services are to take place in the Christian church on Christmas Eve, so it goes without saying that it has to be shortened.
"I'm good at short formats," says Pastor Lemme, who was once a radio host.
The events would only last 25 minutes: "We are foregoing the creed, and my sermon is only three minutes long instead of the usual quarter of an hour." Most people like it.
"And the Christian message gets across anyway," Lemme is convinced.
His colleague Jonas Goebel from the Church of the Resurrection in Hamburg-Lohbrügge has just canceled all Christmas services.
"For that," says Lemme, "it's too early." You have ten days to analyze the situation in detail and act accordingly.
So far there has not been a single superspreader event in the north church.
"Very, very bad feeling about continuing to celebrate church services"
Goebel spoke of "the only responsible option", Lemme wants to actively fulfill his pastoral duty as long as possible.
The pastors stand for the two poles between which the debate about the opening or closing of churches at Christmas moves.
"If an emotional Angela Merkel asks in the Bundestag to reduce contacts, then I just have a very, very bad feeling about continuing to celebrate church services," Goebel told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
In Bavaria, increasingly larger church services are being canceled due to the recent shutdown.
Christmas vespers are allowed, but there is still a curfew after 9 p.m.
The chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Ralph Brinkhaus, brought a general cancellation of all services on Christmas Eve and the Christmas holidays into play.
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) continues to hold on to face-to-face worship services.
The chairman of the EKD Council, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, also believes that church services are responsible for the "strict and meticulous rules that apply".
At the moment, masks are compulsory in the churches, and singing is prohibited, a minimum distance of 1.5 meters must be observed.
In the coming days, the federal government wants to discuss how to proceed with church representatives.
It is a peculiar anachronism that at Christmas 2020, of all places, the churches will become one of the few public places where encounters are still possible.
The first seeds of a culture of envy are already sprouting: "Why are the priests allowed to celebrate with a hundred people and we only have five?" Asks many non-believers in view of the strict lockdown regulations for family gatherings at the festival.
The reason seems simple: During the crisis, the churches and parts of the government classify food for the soul as just as important as food from discounters.
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Bishop Kirsten Fehrs in June 2019 at a baptism festival on the Elbe beach - before the pandemic, with 93 pastors, 500 baptized people and around 5000 guests
Photo: Markus Scholz / picture alliance / dpa
The bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, Kirsten Fehrs, does not believe that there will be any further restrictions on Christmas services in the next ten days.
"There is no evidence of this in our three federal states," she said on request.
She is not aware of any superspreader events or infections in the churches of the north church.
“On the contrary, we get feedback from authorities and politics that church congregations have now responded very responsibly to the pandemic.” Ultimately, “In the Northern Church, the church congregations have sovereignty over their services and can decide for themselves whether they want to attend the Christmas Eve service Celebrate in church or go online. "
Nationwide, more than eight million Protestants and well over eleven million Catholics usually attend church services on Christmas Eve.
For many it is the only contact with the Church in the whole year.
In 2020 you have to reserve your seat in advance - it is difficult to assess whether this shortage caused by the pandemic can sustainably increase the attractiveness of the churches and increase interest in spirituality.
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Thomas Braunstein with Schäfchen: "I leave the door open with all the regulations that exist"
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“A church service lives from the community, I cannot celebrate alone.
It is good to be able to experience a touch of it, «says Pastor Thomas Braunstein from the parish of St. Margarethen in Waldkirch im Breisgau.
There is currently a great need for closeness and community, the churches that are open during the day are well attended, especially outside of the times of worship.
Like the Hamburg pastor Lemme, he reports that there is greater interest in church services, and the willingness to donate has increased since March, and people wanted to help.
“Poor and rich, young and old alike, eat together in church.
That has a different power than when I just celebrate in the cuddly circle of my own family. "
Pastor Thomas Braunstein
Pastor Braunstein would also like to celebrate an open-air service at Christmas.
“We want to spray stars on the ground on the church square where people and families can stand.
There should be no seating and the Christmas mass shouldn't last as long as usual. «Fire bowls and decorations should create a Christmas atmosphere.
"At the Lord's Supper we would then go from star to star so that the congregation would not mix any bigger."
Church or cuddle circle?
The pros and cons of home liturgies
Braunstein is not afraid of corona outbreaks in his community.
“We celebrate all over the country every week, there are three church services here on Sundays alone, and in contrast to the free churches, I have not yet come across a major outbreak on the Protestant or Catholic side of the large churches.
Our hygiene measures are effective. "
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This is how it was before the pandemic: Mask-free Christmas service in Freiburg Cathedral
Photo: Patrick Seeger / picture alliance / dpa
Braunstein expects significantly fewer visitors at Christmas than in previous years.
Possibly because some of his parishioners use the house liturgy designed by the German Bishops' Conference.
"Better than nothing," he says.
"When the family gets together and celebrates worship, it can have a different effect than in the congregation."
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However, he is against the fact that faith is permanently withdrawn into the private sphere: “Christianity has exploded the house liturgy that comes from Jewish tradition and is celebrated at home on Shabbat after prayer in the synagogue.
The novelty was that Jesus celebrated the Lord's Supper together with the twelve apostles «, said Braunstein.
“This opening is also evident in the Church today in the fact that poor and rich, young and old alike, come together and eat together, even if they do not necessarily like each other.
That has a different power than if I just celebrate in the cuddly circle of my own family. "
In order to satisfy the need for faith in community, Marius Fletschinger, Catholic university pastor in Mannheim, has been doing more online than ever for months.
He hopes that more people will do something Christian at home this Christmas than before.
“There used to be that, but these cultural skills have been forgotten,” he says.
Even at the risk of one or the other ironing or having breakfast during the TV service, people dealt with it.
The 36-year-old helps his mainly student believers to celebrate a "sofa service" themselves, including YouTube links to pieces of music, "because we assume that not everyone can sing".
But church services over fiber optics also have their pitfalls.
According to Fletschinger, religion thrives on »being able to create an atmosphere and get closer«.
The online exchange is therefore particularly important to him, he tries to involve the participants with intercessions, for example.
"Some self-proclaimed lateral thinker doesn't care anything"
Some well-known Christians such as Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer have already announced that they will be giving up the Christmas service with the community due to the pandemic.
Pastor Braunstein recognizes this as a sign, but also says: "People have to decide for themselves." And they are very different.
“There are some who are very anxious, others take it more easily, and some self-appointed lateral thinkers don't care at all.
I have them in church too, and they concern me when I insist that singing is not allowed.
They then ask whether I am still normal, death is part of existence, and it's not that bad. "
He must find a way to do justice to all of these people.
“I cannot and will not force anyone to come to church.
But I leave the door open with all the regulations that exist. "
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