Letter 08-2007. Churches.

25^th May 2007

Dear friends,

I have told that I have visited some late gothic village churches north of Leipzig, but I live in a city, and there are churches here too, quite many. I have not visited so many of them, but I have been in some, and I have been most frequently in the two churches in Innenstadt, Thomaskirche (http://www.thomaskirche.org/) and Nikolaikirche (http://www.nikolaikirche-leipzig.de/).

Thomaskirche is the Bach church. Johann Sebastian Bach was Thomas organist from 1723 to 1750, and it is also seen in the church today. Outside the church there is a big statue, and cafes in the surrounding often have their name from the wellknown composer. In the choir in the church is his grave, and the great number of tourists in Leipzig might have a connection to this man. I remember my father once saying, when I started playing some Bach music on the piano, that Bach had written 90 % of the music worth listening to. It might have been an overstatement, but he has written much good music.

Each Friday evening there is a motette in Thomaskirche, a concert in the form of vesper, with Thomanerchor or a guest choir. It is even more popular than the lectures at the theological faculty... I have had a tendency coming only five minutes before here also (I have a nice view to the church from the library, and I do not need many minutes for crossing the road), but I managed to find a seat on the gallery also last Friday. Also Sunday services in the Thomaskirche show that it is a church music church. The choir plays an important role.

Nikolaikirche is the peace church. My history knowledge about Germany has not been the best, but it starts to help now. I still do not have the full overview of the happenings in DDR in 1989, but at least I have understood that Nikolaikirche in Leipzig had a meaning. Each Monday at 5.00 PM there is peace prayer in Nikolaikirche, as it has been since 1982. Today the church is not full, but it is not empty either. In 1989 the peace prayers were more than full. The DDR inhabitants wanted freedom, and the peace prayers were followed by peaceful demonstrations around Innenstadt. In October 1989 300.000 participated in this demonstration, and I think that is quite telling in a town of Oslo's size (500.000).

This week in Nikolaikirche there was a peace prayer for the sufferings of the Palestinians. It has earlier been a peace prayer for the three kidnapped Israeli soldiers, and now Palestinians had asked for a prayer too. Before I came to Germany I had not thought so much about the Israel/Palestine disposition here, but I should perhaps have understood that the holocaust sense of guilt still is so present in the mind that most Germans feel a responsibility for the Jews and Israel. It is soon 40 years Israeli occupation of East-Jerusalem, the Westbank and Gaza (10^th June), and I wonder if the Germans know, and I wonder what I can do in a country where people's sense of guilt for what happened 60 years ago seemingly never ends. We need peace prayers.

It is not only in Innenstadt that you find churches. Just outside my window is Marienkirche. As in most churches in this country, the church bells in Marienkirche rings for five minutes at 7.00 AM 12.00 noon and 6.00 PM. The first morning I thought there was a service in the church, but it is only a reminder that it is prayer time. These bells should make it easy to have a good prayer rythm, but noon and evening I am seldom at home, and morning I am either still in bed, in the bathroom or on my way to an early lecture. This week it will be different. In Germany they have a longer Whitsun holidays. We are soon in the middle of the summer semester and the students (or the lecturers?) need a week without lectures. I will then get to know some protestant religious life in Germany. I will be one week with Christusbruderschaft in Selbitz. (http://www.christusbruderschaft.de/)

Greetings from Hanne.