Already the poet Tibullus referred to the city as eternal. By then the city on the Tiber was already several centuries old if one believes the myths that have been handed down. Today bella Roma is the largest city of Italy, and certainly worth a trip.
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
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Photo: Jessica Krämer
What is life like in Italy’s national capital? Rome is huge and loud and has a population of about three million. Every year millions of tourists converge on this city of fountains, churches, monuments, and the Vatican. The summers are hot, the winters cool and damp. It is a fascinating and elegant city full of contradictions. Rome was already big at the time of Ceasar Augustus and Paul, and at times even the capital of Europe.
Vatican City is not a suburb of Rome. It is an enclave, a separate state within the city. It is the seat of the Pope, as ratified in the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Anyone who wants to visit Rome and the Vatican needs time, something Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider, spiritual head of the New Apostolic Church, unfortunately does not have this weekend. He will be in Rome to visit the small New Apostolic congregation there.
Divine services in Rome and Milano
The divine service for the congregation in Rome will take place on Saturday, 27 November. Also invited are the congregations from the districts Italia Centro, Italia Sud, Sicilia, and Sardegna. About 300 visitors are expected. Many have long distances to cover and will be on their way shortly after midnight to be in Rome on time. The brothers and sisters from Sardinia and Sicily will be flying into Rome. Apostle Jürg Zbinden and Bishop Rolf Camenzind have been busy with the preparations for quite some time and are sure that this will be a memorable weekend for the congregations in Italy.
Immediately after the service in Rome the Chief Apostle and his party will take a bus to Rome’s Termini station to catch a train to Milano, where the Chief Apostle will conduct a service on Sunday for the congregations from the districts of Ticino (Switzerland), Italia Nord Ovest, and Italia Nord Est in the Centro Congressi Milanofiori. More than 500 brothers and sisters are expected.
The congregation in Rome is still young
The beginnings of the New Apostolic Church in Rome go back to the early 1960s. At the time, there was only one New Apostolic person living in Rome, and no congregation as yet. District Elder Giovanni Plüss from Switzerland began to conduct divine services in the city. District Apostle Ernst Streckeisen visited Rome on 12 November 1967. Slowly but surely the congregation began to grow. December 1, 1985 marked a special day for the fledgling congregation: District Apostle Richard Fehr dedicated the first church building of the New Apostolic Church in Rome at Via Bartolomeo Bulgari 10, in the Giardinetti district.
Today the congregation counts 87 members. It has its own rector, a small choir, four Priests, and a Deacon. Including Rome, the membership of the New Apostolic Church in Italy is over 2,000.