For 30 years Elke Winterer has been spending every Christmas mass in the parish church of St. Bernhard.
As a sacristan, she ensures that the faithful celebrate a beautiful service - and not just on Christmas Eve.
The ministry is a matter close to her heart because she has found her second family in the parish.
Fürstenfeldbruck -
Elke Winterer has a lot to do
,
especially in the Advent season and on Christmas days. Ordering Christian stars, decorating the tree, rehearsals for acolytes and many church services need to be prepared, including Rora offices at 7 a.m. “It is important that you don't forget anything,” says the 76-year-old. But that once happened is an exception. Because Elke Winterer is a sexton with heart and soul, and has been for 30 years.
She has always been affectionate to the church, says the Rhinelander in the sacristy of St. Bernhard.
Her parents were remote from the church.
“But I always enjoyed going to church.” She kept it that way in Fürstenfeldbruck - with a break.
But when her daughter went to communion class, Elke Winterer began to get involved again.
She led communion and confirmation groups and sang in the church choir - together with the sacristan at the time.
One day he asked if Winterer could replace him on Sundays.
She said yes.
“I noticed that it was great.” Then her predecessor announced his departure and asked if Winterer would not be interested in taking on the task.
“I was blessed then,” she remembers.
Since then she has been a part-time sexton because there is also a caretaker in St. Bernhard. She prepares the mass, makes sure that the priest's robes hang neatly on the coat hanger, lights candles and has everything ready. She is looking for extension cords for children's services, decorates the church for weddings, baptisms and funeral ceremonies - and is the last to lock the doors afterwards. She follows the services over loudspeakers in the sacristy. She can do handicrafts.
Your working hours are usually fixed, but they cannot always be fully planned. Because funerals come at short notice - and a doctor's appointment has to be postponed. And on Sunday lunch had to be on the table. “I already pre-cooked on Saturday,” says Elke Winterer. But her husband, who has since passed away, supported her in her fulfilling work.
Elke Winterer has seen four pastors in the past 30 years. “Everyone has their own peculiarities,” she says. But she likes everyone. The fact that she lost two bosses - as she calls the pastors - through death struck her. She also had a lot of personal contact with Pastor Herbert Ziegenaus, who once hired her 30 years ago. "He was a very gracious pastor." She finds similar words for Albert Bauernfeind, who is no longer recovering from a heart operation.
At the beginning Elke Winterer would never have thought that she has been the good soul of the parish for 30 years. But in the meantime the parish, in which she is also involved in senior citizens and visiting services, has become her second family. “I can't even imagine doing it without it,” says the 76-year-old. And so she never took the weekend off that she was supposed to be entitled to. She can only be represented when she is traveling. "But even on vacation I always have St. Bernhard with me."
And so Elke Winterer will prepare the Christmas services again this year - and also prepare everything at home.
Her daughter lives in Oberammergau and her relatives in the Rhineland.
“For me, Christmas is all the more in church,” she says.
When everything is ready on Christmas Eve, she too can feel the peaceful atmosphere.
"If I turn out the candles at the end of Christmas mass and only the tree is lit and Silent Night is sung, then it's Christmas for me."
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