Word of the Week: Gottesdienst

[[I just realized that I hadn't hit 'Publish' on this post, even though I wrote it 3 months ago when we were still in Germany! There will be a few more like this to follow, too.]]

I've been going to church at Luthurkirche in Nippes since the early summer. It's only a 5 minute walk from our house, it's not catholic (a bit of a rarity in Cologne), and the services are good, so it's been really nice to go whenever we're in town. The building is brick gothic in style, much like the churches we saw in northern German (post and pictures coming soon!) with the ceilings stuccoed and painted.

it's hard to see in the picture, but the apse is painted with beautiful light blue stars

The services--Gottesdienst--are in German, so sometimes I'll catch 70% of the sermon and sometimes only about 10%, depending on the speaker and topic. My favorite part, though, is the singing--hearing the organ echo off the walls, and singing some of my favorite hymns in German is a lovely way to start my Sunday. And it's yet another thing that makes me feel like I'm in Germany, even if I spend most of a week working in the apartment! I borrowed a hymnal the other week, and I've been making copies of my favorite hymns so I don't forget them.

Morning has Broken, auf Deutsch  - one of my favorites

I also like the church because they regularly host concerts and events, called Kulturkirche. Most of the events are secular, but they never bring in death metal bands or anything, so it turns into a really neat venue. We recently went to a Radical Face concert there, and it was so fun! The acoustics are great and, because we're in Germany, there was a bar with beer. Drinking beer in church felt a bit funny, but I guess they wouldn't get a very good turn out if it was a dry concert :)

clockwise from left: the lighting effects, the sound guy and bar, and drinking beer in a pew

I haven't posted as much recently since we're busy working, getting ready to move, and soaking up as much as we can before we leave. The Christmas markets kicked off today, so I'm sure I'll be sharing about them soon!