Karin Bohn | St. Andreas
Würzburg Church will also be a café and meeting place. “We simply can’t do it anymore.”
A Germany there were already more people in churches than now. At the end of last year, less than half (43.8%) of Germans were linked to the Catholic Church or the Evangelical Church.
Also over the past year, more than 650,000 people stopped attending churches, bringing Catholics and gospels together.
In this century, they were completely closed the liturgical uses of 611 Catholic churches.
With fewer people, less membership, fewer activities, a “weaker” community. But the costs of maintaining the space remain.
The church of Saint Andrew, in the Sanderau neighborhood of Würzburg, it was still holding on. But he can’t take it anymore. As a church, no.
Local father Tobias Fuchs highlights precisely expensive maintenance ea lack of people. For a long time, the caretaker at that church was a volunteer; but he is too old to continue.
“Simply we can no longer”, the priest now laments, quoted in .
The church will no longer be the stage for religious celebrations but will become a place of escalation.
The company Rock Inn will take care of the space which, in addition to climbing bouldier walls, will also be yoga, will have a café, a space for encounters and another for children.
Architect Andreas Schmitt, co-manager of Rock Inn, sees the new use as a new community: “A church is a place that brings together a community. We also understand ourselves as a structure that brings people together. In this sense, this new use fits very well.”
And the priest doesn’t care. He is even grateful: “We are grateful that a good solution was quickly found for the preservation of the church and the parish center.”
The rectory continues to belong to the local parish; coordination with children and young people will be carried out by a local pastoral agent.
