Berlin is worth a visit. The more than 30 million tourists a year who visit Berlin should know. This weekend, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will be in the German capital. He will be conducting a service in our church Berlin-Tegel.
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This weekend, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will be in the German capital.
Photo: Jens Lange
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This weekend, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will be in the German capital.
Photo: Jens Lange
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This weekend, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will be in the German capital.
Photo: Jens Lange
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A Berlin choir turns over a new leaf
Photo: Jens Lange
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A Berlin choir turns over a new leaf
Photo: Jens Lange
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A Berlin choir turns over a new leaf
Photo: Jens Lange
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A Berlin choir turns over a new leaf
Photo: Jens Lange
The New Apostolic congregations in Berlin are very active and have wide interests. As befits a Church in a national capital, social contacts to authorities and the media are well developed. For example, for several years now the Church has been contributing to a radio programme.
The Church goes on the air three to four times a year. Deutschlandradio, a German public radio broadcaster, provides the platform for this. The next New Apostolic broadcast is planned for the fourth Sunday of Advent at 6.56 a.m. as part of its Sunday morning devotion. Broadcasting religious matters on the radio is a joint project of the Working Group of Churches and Religious Communities (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kirchen und Religionsgesellschaften, AKR). The New Apostolic Church has been a member for fifty years, and has been actively involved for five years now.
Consolidation within the congregational landscape
Chief Apostle Schneider will be visiting the congregation Berlin-Tegel. District Apostle Wolfgang Nadolny and his executive board are pursuing the consolidation of the congregational landscape. In future, congregations will be amalgamated, but there will also be the odd new church building. The church building programme initiated by the European District Churches makes it possible to invest in selected locations.
A Berlin choir turns over a new leaf
And then there is a certain Berlin-based choir, the so-called School Choir, which has always been a permanent fixture in the New Apostolic landscape of the German capital. It was founded in 1924. The choir was conceived as a kind of teaching choir: choir leaders and choir members were taught with a view to a common repertoire and a uniform way of interpreting the hymns of our Church. Now, ninety years later, a reorientation is required.
District Apostle Nadolny personally informed the Berlin congregations in a video message. From now on, the choir will address all generations of singers. Children and young people are invited to form their own choral ensembles. “Since choral music is a central element in every divine service, we certainly hope for new direct or indirect impulses for the congregations,” District Elder Thomas Krack, a former choir director and contact person for choral music, says.
First project on Holy Thursday 2019
In addition to enhancing festive divine services, the new choir will also give concerts with demanding choral works. In order to underline the formative character of the choir, there will be courses in choral conducting, vocal training, and advice for conductors on how to prepare and learn scores.
The new school choir is working on its first project, which will be performed during Passiontide next year. The choir will recite excerpts from the St Matthew Passion and reflect on the events of Palm Sunday, the institution of the Lord’s Supper by Jesus Christ, and His death on Good Friday. The choir will be singing the oratorio Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in the second half of 2020.