Andreas Church (Firrel)

Andreas Church Firrel

The Evangelical Lutheran St. Andrew's Church is located in Firrel , a municipality in the Samtgemeinde Hesel in East Frisian district of Leer in Lower Saxony . It was built in 1906/07.

history

inside view

Firrel was founded in the second half of the 18th century. In ecclesiastical terms, the village was assigned to the parish of Hesel . In 1899 an independent congregation was founded, which initially held its services in the school. Initially, there was not enough money to build their own place of worship. The community finally generated the necessary financial means through a house collection throughout East Frisia, so that in 1906 they could start building the church and the attached rectory. The church was built according to a blueprint that had been worked out in the Royal Ministry in Hanover. The construction was carried out by the Arend Trauernicht company ( Spetzerfehn ). In 1907 the work was completed so that the church could be consecrated on May 26, 1907, Trinity Sunday . In 1954 and 1985 the church was renovated.

The church tower was only erected in 1962. It has space for four group rooms one above the other. In the attic there are four bells, three from the year the tower was built and one from 1834. It used to hang as an hour bell in the tower of the Firrel school. In 1998 the church tower was given a new top with a swan as a weather vane. This comes from a Lutheran tradition on the coast. It goes back to the legend of the Czech reformer Johannes Hus ( Hus means goose in Czech ). He was sentenced to death at the Council of Constance in 1415 . Before he was cremated as a heretic, he is said to have said: "Today you will roast a goose, but a swan will emerge from the ashes " . Later this was brought into connection with Luther and therefore made the swan his symbol.

In 1999 the church was given the name Andreas Church .

Furnishing

The Andreas Church

The blueprint of the Firrel Church was based on typical Lower Saxony buildings, which is why the Firrel rectory on its rear gable received a framework that was rather unusual for East Friesland. Inside, the church is kept simple. The pulpit dates from 1907. In the course of the renovation in 1985, it was repainted. Since then one of the I am words of Jesus from the Gospel of John can be read in each segment . The baptismal font was procured in the year the church was built. It contains a silver baptismal bowl, which is decorated with a legend from the New Testament.

The two stained glass windows in the chancel were installed in the course of the church renovation in 1954. They are the work of the church painter Hermann Oetken from Delmenhorst and show the Twelve Apostles . The namesake Andreas can be seen in the left window.

The altarpiece was made in 1908 and temporarily removed in 1954. In the course of the renovation in 1985, the altar was rebuilt and the restored tower was returned to its old location. In its center is a replica of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci .

The organ is a work of the Hendrik Jan Vierdag company from Enschede in the Netherlands. The one-manual instrument with eleven registers was handed over to its intended use on July 7, 1971. In 2002, Harm Dieder Kirschner from Stapelmoor cleaned it, overhauled it and improved it in terms of sound. a. by rebuilding a register.

literature

Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Menno Smid : Frisian churches in Emden, Leer, Borkum, Mormerland, Uplengen, Overledingen and Reiderland , volume 3. Verlag CL Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1980, p. 58.

Web links

Commons : Andreaskirche (Firrel) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Homepage of the community
Johann Wilken (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape ): Firrel (PDF file; 30 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Bernhard Berends: Ev.-luth. Andreas Church in Firrel , viewed on October 10, 2010.
↑ The swan, a Lutheran tradition on the coast ( Memento from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Achim Knöfel, Reinhard Rittner: 100 Years of Church Painter Hermann Oetken 1909–1998. In: Oldenburger Jahrbuch, Volume 109, Isensee – Verlag , Oldenburg 2009, ISBN 978-389995-669-6 , p. 61 ff. ( Digital library , accessed on August 15, 2018).

53.3291734 7.6648628Coordinates: 53 ° 19 ′ 45 " N , 7 ° 39 ′ 53.5" E

[Behrends-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Bernhard Berends: Ev.-luth. Andreas Church in Firrel , viewed on October 10, 2010.

[2] The swan, a Lutheran tradition on the coast ( Memento from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

[3] Achim Knöfel, Reinhard Rittner: 100 Years of Church Painter Hermann Oetken 1909–1998. In: Oldenburger Jahrbuch, Volume 109, Isensee – Verlag , Oldenburg 2009, ISBN 978-389995-669-6 , p. 61 ff. ( Digital library , accessed on August 15, 2018).