Church services at Christmas: Dachau pastor wants to preach against social division
Created: 12/22/2021, 06:46 AM
There is a Christmas service on Christmas Eve.
© Nicolas Armer
The second Christmas party under the influence of the omnipresent virus.
How do the churches deal with this stressful situation at Christmas time?
How can and may you celebrate the upcoming services around Christmas Eve?
The local newspaper asked around in the parishes.
Dachau - "I was so naive and thought to myself that this will not come back to us again," admits Pastor Thomas Körner of the Friedenskirche in Dachau frankly. On the one hand, it worries him that the pandemic is still in full swing. On the other hand, however, he is more and more concerned with the increasing division in society. "In the Christmas sermon I will emphasize that nothing should divide us," emphasizes the Protestant pastor. There should be no “people willing to vaccinate against skeptics”, but rather the worries and concerns of skeptics must be taken seriously. On the other hand, he does not want to include the so-called lateral thinkers, because “you can't get hold of them anyway”. In his daily work, he often learns that many are simply afraid of the disease and of the vaccination, says Körner.
The extent to which the services of the evangelical peace church in Dachau will take place online or in person has not yet been determined.
Thomas Körner, pastor of the Protestant Church of Peace © Friedenskirche
On the other hand, there is already a fixed service program in the parish association Heilig Kreuz / St.
Peter in Dachau.
The usually well-attended church services on Christmas Eve and on public holidays will take place using the 3G rule so that no one is excluded.
Those interested can find the exact information at www.erzbistum-muenchen.de.
Like Pastor Thomas Körner, community officer Markus Grimm from the parish association Heilig Kreuz / St.
Peter will address the increasing division in society in his Christmas sermon, which he will give together with his wife and community representative Birgitta Grimm.
The starting point for this will be a viewing of a picture in which the Holy Family can be seen in a boat that is in distress.
"Are we all still in the same boat?", Markus Grimm will ask the worshipers.
He himself notices that there is more and more distrust and even divisions within families.
“We are on the side of science,” emphasizes the municipal officer, but “the door must always remain open to everyone.
We must not strike them against each other, ”Grimm urges all Christians.
This is exactly the point, also community officer Angelika Elsen-Heck, also from the parish association Heilig Kreuz / St.
Peter, only recently discussed in the youth service.
For the little worshipers at Christmas, everything should go as usual as possible.
“Normality is our main goal here,” says Elsen-Heck.
Corona deliberately wants to leave it out, but rather focus on the good news.