Easter – and we went to church

The Easter weekend is a long one in Germany. Both Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays. In Minnesota, both days are regular workdays – except for the fact, that there was no school on Good Friday, but the first day of spring break.  

My friend Steph was really surprised by the fact that Christian traditions cause most holidays in Germany, for example the long weekend off, while Christianity is not that important in German daily life. That is the complete opposite of what we experience here in the quite conservative Midwest. It is a little unthinkable for most people that Alex and I still have not joined a church community – we haven’t found one yet, but haven’t searched actively.

Though Germany celebrates its Christian roots a lot, most people do not attend church service though they might belong to a church (and therefore pay taxes). About 58% of the more than eighty million inhabitants of Germany are listed as Christians, the numbers for Protestants and Catholics are nearly equal in total. But traditionally, the southwest has always been more catholic and the northeast more protestant. A rising percentage of 38% is “unaffiliated with any religion”. The biggest minority are muslims (less than 3% of the population in total). And yes, there are also Jewish communities in Germany – as far as I know, mainly in Frankfurt and Berlin, but there are smaller communities in and around every larger city (even my former university city Halle has a synagogue).

Alex and I are both evangelical Lutherans which is kind of synonym to Protestant – at least in Germany. The variety of churches offered in the U.S. was (and still is) something completely new to us! However, Easter Sunday seemed to be a good starting point for going to church. In my case, it was the first time of attending service in the U.S.

The easter cross waiting in the lobby.

 

We joined our friends at the traditional service at Autumn Ridge Church: Classic church choir and a small orchestra instead of gospel choir and band (in the contemporary service). The church building itself was highly functional as so many in the U.S. are: One room for child care during service, a café and many more. The hall itself reminded me more of the auditorium of my high school than of a church back in Germany. A stage instead of a presbytery. Huge screens instead of hymnals. A speaker's desk instead of a pulpil. The pastor wearing a suit instead of a cassock. At the end of service no “Our father”, but “only” intercessions.

Yes, I know that I do compare apples to oranges (by the way: in German we would compare apples to pears) and of course – in the end the style does not matter. Besides, I also found similarities: The amout of singing, for example – and I recognized the melodies from two of three songs (though they are all kind of logical), but one of them was the melody of a Christmas song (“Tochter Zion”). The sermon itself was more evangelical (about the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead) and less appealing to our conscience. But again: That is only something our Lutheran souls would have expected. I enjoyed the service, after all.

We are currently thinking about attending a Lutheran church service (maybe for Pentecost?). And there are plenty of Lutheran churches in town: Lutheran Missouri Synod, Lutheran Wisconsin Synod, Lutheran ELCA … The latter is considered to be more progressive, they do for example allow female pastors and do not exclude anybody because of his or her sexual orientation. They even support same-sex marriage which is currently discussed at the Supreme Court. I could not join a church community who does not support this.

At the moment, the campaign on facebook and other social media is still running, many have chosen the pink and red = as their profile picture as a sign of support. I put it here in my blog. 

= Yes, I do support same sex marriage.

More facts and numbers about same-sex marriage here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/11/politics/btn-same-sex-marriage/index.html

Nobody chooses his or her sexuality. No one should be excluded because he or she loves a person of the same sex. No one should be forced into a heterosexual, maybe unhappy life. We are all God’s Children, no matter what. Just my two cents.

And yes, I know that Germany is also lacking the support of same-sex marriage since the law there only allows “civil unions”. Let's see what happens after the election this fall. But there will always be people argueing with the bible about this issue - on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.