With the mass exodus from the evangelical church, interest in church accompaniment at new stages of life and life events also decreases. A ritual designer is now proposing an expansion of the range of offers.
Inhalt / Content
Expansion of the rituals is necessary
If the members run away in droves, then it is also no wonder that those who have fled to the “underground” have no interest in appearing at any events as on the surface. The Evangelical Church in Germany is experiencing an unprecedented flight of members and is feeling this development even with the meager number of people present at church weddings and baptisms.
Now the church is considering changing the rituals. According to Hamburg pastor and “ritual designer” Meike Barnahl, these should appeal to people more and be adapted to their needs. The desire for blessing and support is great, but there are still too many hurdles in contacting the church, according to the designer of the Evangelical Press Service (epd), as evangelisch.de reported.
Necessity of a ritual agency
In addition to her work as a pastor, the “theologian” is also the head of the church ritual agency “st. moment”. Baptisms, weddings and funerals are among the traditional occasions for using the church as a companion. But there are also other occasions “that have something to do with the upheavals in life,” said the pastor. The first difficulties for the people already start when contacting the church. Many don’t even know where to go “in the church system”. Many people are also of the opinion that they may not attend church services enough to ask at all. Others, on the other hand, believed that they did not behave in accordance with the “ecclesiastical normal picture” in their lives..
Basically, the church offers a “huge treasury of Christian rituals”, which, however, should only be easy to find. This included the fulfillment of special requests such as music, form and location of the celebration. Be it the fair, the rose garden, the harbor or in the neighborhood pub, such wishes can be realized. According to the pastor and ritual designer, the range of services must now be expanded. Other topics for church support could be saying goodbye to the desire to have children, a separation or entering retirement.
In addition to the currently not very visible interfaces of the church for making contact for such rituals, there is also competition from freelance ritual companions.
Counter spiritual vacuum with business model
Based on the fact that the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) only has as much to do with the Gospel as is required by the traditions largely carried on by the Catholic Church, the framework defined here can only be described as pure business. In the Church of Rome it is easy to observe that the truths of the gospel that have been abolished and replaced with their own dogmas leave a spiritual void in the people. This vacuum has to be filled with sometimes pompous, but completely pointless and also dangerously misleading rituals. After its official return to the mother church, the evangelical church has to catch up on some of these rituals.
Politics as “Christianity”
With adjustments and expansions of the range of services for “demanding and also anxious people”, this church invariably tinkers with the symptoms, but not with the cause. The evangelical churches prove their total disbelief in the word of God every day with their events, theses, statements and also their creeds. They don’t represent the gospel with a single line. So the mass exodus from this left-green institution, which has long been politically active, is no surprise. The past has repeatedly shown impressively the complete incompatibility of socialism or communism with the gospel. In addition, this church in this “political spirit” actually imagines that it has to educate people with a raised index finger. This pays off visibly.
Revelation 18:2 is entirely true
After their return to the womb of the Roman mother, the evangelical churches have long since been abandoned by “all good spirits” and the publicly visible presence of this family clearly points to Revelation 18:2:
Bible verses from King James Version
