Month: March 2015

Spring is in the air. Well, one can only dream; the cold wind is howling, the river Elbe has high waves and ferry boats are fighting against the fierce winds roaring across north Germany. However curl up and enjoy the spring edition of the church magazine full of news and updates of events. This is the final edition by your current Becket News editor. A big thank you to John for his hard work and tenacity in getting our news out of us and into print.

There is still time to donate to Bishop Robert's Lent Appeal, which this year is in support of “Hestia”, a hostel for unaccompanied minor refugees in Athens. Children who have fled their homes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa are being held in prison conditions because there is nowhere else for them to go, and Greece has no money to care for them. Hestia, which means “home”, is a hostel provided by “Apostoli”, a social action charity operating under the auspices of the Greek Orthodox Church. You can find full details of the Bishop's Lent Appeal on the Diocese in Europe website. You can donate to the Lent Appeal in church.

The deadline for articles and photographs for the Easter edition of Becket News is 21 March. A lot has gone on over the last couple of months, says your BN editor, and he would like articles, event news, reports on activities and information by Saturday, 21 March at the latest. If you can let him know that you plan to send something, that will also help with planning. Please e-mail to becketnews (at) aol.com.

Saturday 28 March 2015, at 7pm, sees the premiere of the English Passiontide composition “40 days+nights” in the Anglican Church of St Thomas Becket (Zeughausmarkt 22). The piece is a choral cantata on the theme of the English hymn “Forty days and forty nights” and has been composed by Yotin Tiewtrakul (born 1975), Director of Music at the Anglican Church.

While Germany has the St Matthew and St John Passions, there is nothing comparable in the UK. “40 days+nights” is also a Passiontide cantata with a difference. Set for unison voices, baritone sole (Gabriel Kyne), organ (Jochim Trede) and piano (Tobias Saalmann), it seeks to approach Jesus’s experience of suffering through the time in the wilderness. A musical setting of words by the Cologne pastor and poetry slammer, Holger Pyka, complements the verses of the hymn.

There is no admission charge, but donations are appreciated.

With spring in the air, the Church Wanderers are planning to have another go at walking from Rissen to Wedel on 14 March – a shortish stretch of about 8km – after January storms forced the last attempt to be cancelled. The walk will begin from Rissen S-Bahn station at 11.15 am. (Catch the S1 which leaves Hamburg Hauptbahnhof at 10:39 and gets to Rissen at 11:14.) A table has been booked at La Dolce Vita trattoria in Bahnhofstrasse for 2pm. Walkers may want to bring a bite to eat in view of the late lunch. Please let Nicki Schiller know if you are coming by 10pm on Thursday, 12 March – nicki.schiller [at] gmx.de, tel. 04104 695537 or 0176 30 393 063.