Because the roof shingles are loose, access to the Holy Cross Church in Schaftlach is currently blocked.
Covered access should help - but the measure has been delayed.
Schaftlach
- The bad news reached the parish association Waakirchen-Schaftlach in September: Access to the Holy Cross Church must be blocked off immediately because roof panels could come loose at any time and fall on church visitors.
From then on, services had to be celebrated outdoors or in the parish hall.
Work on covered access will not start until Monday
In September, Pastor Stephan Fischbacher was still optimistic that the church could reopen in a few weeks: A roof access should help until the actual renovation is tackled.
But the temporary solution is a long time coming.
"The contracted company informed us that the material could not be delivered on time," explains Fischbacher when asked.
The work on the wooden structure can therefore only begin late on Monday, October 25th.
“In a week,” says the pastor, “services in the church will be possible again”.
The bride and groom have to set up a scaffolding with a roof for the wedding themselves
It's too late for a local bride and groom.
The wedding will take place this Saturday (October 23) - for a long time everyone involved, including the pastor, assumed that access to the church would be secured by then.
Fischbacher had to deliver the crushing message to the couple at short notice that this is not the case.
"A very unfortunate situation", as the parish leader admits.
Fortunately, the groom is a craftsman himself - according to Fischbacher, he and the family will personally set up scaffolding and thus provide a temporary roof over the entrance.
Extra for the wedding.
The church tower is also rotten: bells are no longer allowed to ring
Of course, this does not solve the fundamental problem. The roof of the Holy Cross Church, which was only reopened in 2010 after extensive renovation that took years to complete, is and remains in need of renovation. As it turned out during an inspection, there is also a need for action in the roof turret (tower): Because the entablature there is rotten and the tower wobbles too much when it rings, the bells may no longer be activated.
Fischbacher assumes that it will be a long time before "something happens" when it comes to renovation.
The wooden roof at the entrance will probably have to do its job for two to three years.
“That's why we wanted to have something beautiful and clever right away,” emphasizes the pastor.
According to his information, preliminary talks with the Archbishop's Ordinariate about the roof renovation are already underway.
“You have to see which repairs are actually necessary,” explains Fischbacher.
Ordinariate assumes that the roof needs to be re-tiled
This is also confirmed by the Archbishop's Ordinariate on request.
With regard to the church tower, according to the knowledge of the ordinariate, a vibration measurement was commissioned - this should take place shortly and show "to what extent the swinging of the bells leads to a movement of the tower, which can cause the roof shingles to loosen," said press spokesman Hendrik Steffens.
According to the current state of knowledge, a new covering of the church roof is considered necessary.
For this, however, the result of the measurement must be awaited and included in the planning.
Subsequently, “possible measures could be derived, calculated and applied for”.
The ordinariate does not specify a specific period.
In the past, repairs were always required
Steffens admits that the roof's condition in need of repair had been known for a long time.
Therefore, repairs have been carried out again and again to ensure the safety of passers-by in the vicinity of the church.
Now the situation is such that, from the point of view of the ordinariate, further measures are evidently unavoidable.
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