Discover new facets of the church

When she sat in a church in Germany for the first time, she was surrounded by silence. And then the organ rang out.

This moment made a deep impression on her. Marcia Palma grew up in Chile, studied chemistry there and later theology in Chile and Argentina. She came to Leipzig and Berlin as an exchange student and completed her vicariate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover. From Germany, she also discovered the liberation theology that emerged on her home continent. Today she is a pastor in Seelze.

Marcia Palma was one of the participants who shared her impressions of the church in another country at the recent Latin America Study Day organised by the Ev.-luth. Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM). One question ran like a red thread through the day: What fascinates me about the church? In addition to Marcia Palma, the ELM speakers Kurt Herrera (speaker for South America), Cristina Scherer (pastor from Brazil and ecumenical employee at the ELM) and two pupils from the Protestant Integrated Comprehensive School in Wunstorf, who took part in an exchange programme at their school, also reported on their experiences.

During their stay in Brazil, Lea and Jan were amazed to discover that they sat at round tables in a sports hall for the church service and ate and talked in between. Kurt Herrera, who lived and worked in Argentina and Peru for many years, also reports relaxed, informal socialising. He was particularly impressed by the way children were treated in these countries, whereas in Germany he experienced little tolerance for the presence of children in church services.

Many people in Latin American countries travel long distances to attend a Sunday service. As a result, it is usually not just a one-hour event. Talking, eating and singing together is a natural part of it and often lasts several hours. The musical counterpart to the impressive sounds of the organ in European churches is singing to the guitar, which is firmly rooted in Latin American church culture.

Singing, praying and talking to each other, but also being together over lunch and coffee, is also at the centre of the Latin America Study Day. "Many of the participants were looking forward to this day, you could tell," says one participant who was there for the first time. Even for her as a "newcomer", the relaxed atmosphere soon gave her the opportunity to talk to others. Some participants would like to see a little more "Latin American flair" in the German church. Some of them also see opportunities to realise this in small steps in their congregations. "You can simply speak to new faces in a friendly way after the church service," says one woman. Others dream of a church that combines elements of education, community and faith - just like the Latin America Study Day does. "If church could be like that, then that would be my church," summarises one participant on this format.

And what can the church in Germany "score points" with? In addition to the rich treasure of church music, it is its solid administrative organisation, which includes a secure salary for pastors, but also its ambition to get involved in political discourse.

For Nina Roggenbuck-Bauer, International Partnerships Officer at the ELM, who prepared the Latin America Study Day together with Kurt Herrera and Cristina Scherer, the expectations that the organising team had for the event were fulfilled: "There was a very lively exchange."