The Evangelical Jesus Christ Church has a new vicar.
With Cristina Burkert, there is a woman in office who has not followed the conventional vicariate path.
She literally turned her hobby into a profession and is now in the process of becoming a pastor.
Germering - Anyone who has regularly attended church services in the church on Hartstrasse since September 1st, will have heard Cristina Burkert sermon one time or another. The new woman in the parish is a candidate for the pastor's profession and is currently going through the two and a half year vicariate in Germering before the ordination is due and she will take up her own position as pastor.
Burkert-Huber, as the 40-year-old is actually called, differs a little from other vicars. These are usually between 25 and 32 years old during their training. The fact that Cristina Burkert is older than her colleagues is due to the fact that she has already worked elsewhere. After training as a pharmaceutical technical assistant in Passau, Burkert studied Protestant theology and musicology in Regensburg. “I actually did my degree out of pure interest. I find church music and liturgy exciting, ”she says.
Because of a professional change to Munich, Cristina Burkert ended up at the Großhadern Clinic.
There she worked as a volunteer hospital chaplain with great pleasure.
“That made me want to know it again and study full theology,” explains Burkert, who was born in Bayreuth.
Not an easy task, as it is a full-time course and Burkert worked between 50 and 70 percent on the side.
“The encounters with people in the clinic and the trust they placed in me to tell me their needs, fears and their life story so that I could take them with me to prayer afterwards filled me very much and gave me the courage and drive to do this again and again Cope with studying theology.
I wanted to do it, ”says the 40-year-old.
A wish that may have slumbered in her early on. As a child, Cristina Burkert often attended children's services and felt quite comfortable there. When she was four years old, she lost her father. “I felt comfortable at the children's church service,” she remembers. In her youth she couldn't do much with the faith. She only found her way back to church in young adulthood. Now she wants to become a pastor.
That is why Burkert has been commuting from Munich to Germering every day since September to do her job. As vicar, she has a 48 hour week with six working days. Because in addition to the activities in the community, i.e. pastoral care, church services and confirmation classes, preparing and holding, baptizing and marrying, Burkert works as a teacher at the Kleinfeldschule. That is also part of the vicariate. So she has, at least temporarily, the same job as her husband, who works as a Catholic religion teacher. “We live ecumenism at home, so to speak,” jokes Burkert.
In her free hours, the 40-year-old enjoys spending time with her husband.
Together they like to go hiking, she likes to cook and play the cello and always tries to act creatively.
So far, however, her free time has been limited, as she still has to get used to the new work processes: "I often work when others are free."
The entry into the Germering parish was a successful one for Cristina Burkert.
“I was welcomed very warmly in the community,” she says.
Now she is looking forward to all upcoming tasks and encounters with the people of the Jesus Christ Church.
(CHRISTOPH RIEGEL)
