Celebrating Pentecost in church and at home
“At home worldwide” is the nac.today slogan and could not be more appropriate for Pentecost 2021: not only is the New Apostolic Church at home all over the world, but the Church is also bringing the feast home. The connection, in any case, will be made.
The international conference of the District Apostles for this year’s Pentecost started yesterday at the head office of the New Apostolic Church International in Zurich. Because of the pandemic only some of the global Church leaders could travel to Switzerland. The rest were connected by video conference.
Meanwhile, preparations are underway for the highlight of the Pentecost weekend: the divine service with Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider. The divine service will not only be transmitted via satellite to be received in the churches as usual, but it will also be streamed over the internet. This will allow brothers and sisters who cannot go to church because of COVID restrictions to join the service.
Following are the streams that the editors know of so far: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Romanian, and sign language.
Those who would like to get in the mood can do a little reminiscing. For example, the Pentecost celebrations in Lusaka (Zambia) in 2015, in which the Chief Apostle called upon the faithful: “Let us trust in the power of the Holy Spirit,” and in which we saw some of the emotions that music can evoke. Or 2016 in Frankfurt (Germany) under the motto “Walking in the Holy Spirit”.
Next was Vienna (Austria) in 2017, which was all about understanding and speaking the other one’s language. And there was a touching song to be heard. “Let us give our neighbour a foretaste of the kingdom of God”, was the Chief Apostle’s message in 2018 in Washington (USA), where divine services became a motion picture.
In 2019 in Goslar (Germany), the Chief Apostle extended a big thank-you to all brothers and sisters across the world: “You are our joy!” In 2020 in Darmstadt (Germany) the focus of the sermon was on how the Holy Spirit unfolds in us. An added plus was an international virtual choir of some 1,600 voices.
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Andreas Rother
21.05.2021
Christian holidays,
Pentecost,
Divine service,
International
