The countdown is on: 32 days to go to this year’s Pentecost celebrations. This time in Frankfurt (Germany). The preparations are in full swing and there is growing excitement. There is even a dedicated website.
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Pentecost 2016, Chief Apostle Schneider, Convention Centre
Photo: Pietro Sutera
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Poster campaign testifies of the excitement
Photo: NAK Hessen/Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland
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Poster campaign testifies of the excitement
Photo: NAK Hessen/Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland
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NAC Capetown Children Choir, 2014: Concert in Frankfurt (Germany)
Photo: Marcel Felde
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NAC Capetown Children Choir, 2014: Concert in Kassel (Germany)
Photo: Marcel Felde
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Pentecost 1993, Chief Apostle Fehr
Photo: Archiv Bischoff Verlag
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Pentecost 1987, Chief Apostle Urwyler
Photo: Archiv Bischoff Verlag
“Leben im Geist – Living in the Spirit – Vivre selon l’Esprit” is the title of the homepage at www.pfingsten-frankfurt.de. The information is provided in both German and French because District Apostle Bernd Koberstein, this year’s host, also looks after the New Apostolic Christians in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
Poster campaign testifies of the excitement
The preparations have been running full speed since it was announced 14 months ago that the central Pentecost service 2016 would be celebrated in Frankfurt. The choirs have been busy practising for a year now and organizational preparations are running as well.
Central to the celebrations is the divine service which Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will conduct at the Congress Center in Frankfurt on 15 May 2016. Some 2,000 brothers and sisters from the districts of Frankfurt and Offenbach have been invited, as well as the European District Apostles and Apostles. A video transmission of the service will be provided for congregations in Europe.
The growing excitement is illustrated in a poster campaign: members of all age groups state why they are looking forward to Pentecost. The idea is based on a poster series used last year in Europe for public relations purposes.
Special guests from Cape Town
The Chief Apostle, the District Apostles, and the Apostles will be arriving in Frankfurt on Friday. The traditional Pentecost meeting is scheduled for Saturday morning.
The Chief Apostle and his guests are invited to a concert that will take place in a magnificent concert hall in the nearby city of Wiesbaden. Performers will be the district’s own philharmonic chamber orchestra, a concert choir, and a children’s choir drawn from the congregations of the Apostle district.
There will also be some special guests from Cape Town: some members of the NAC Cape Town Children Choir. Sponsors have made it possible for some of the children to come to Germany for the Pentecost celebrations. The choir from Cape Town toured Germany in 2008 and 2014.
A historic location
The city of Frankfurt and the New Apostolic Church go back many years. Between 1930 and 1960 Chief Apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff governed the international New Apostolic Church from Frankfurt.
Richard Fehr was the last Chief Apostle to be in Frankfurt for Pentecost. This was in 1993. This was one of the first Pentecost services that was transmitted to congregations around the world.
Many Frankfurters have special memories of the Pentecost celebrations with Chief Apostle Hans Urwyler in 1987—his last Pentecost before he stepped down as Chief Apostle for health reasons.