Bethlehem Church (Neuschoo)

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Bethlehem Church Neuschoo

The Methodist Bethlehem Church Neuschoo (also called Methodist Church Neuschoo ) is located in the municipality of Neuschoo , Samtgemeinde Holtriem ( East Friesland ). It was built in 1869 and is therefore one of the oldest Methodist churches in Germany.

history

The first Methodist Christians appeared in East Frisia in 1809. Only in the course of the pronounced missionary work of the Methodist preacher Franz Klüsner from 1861 in East Friesland and especially from 1866 starting from Aurich did the blacksmith, shopkeeper and innkeeper Jürgen Gottfried Schmidt found the community in Neuschoo in 1868. It initially had 55 members and was initially a station in the Aurich district. Klüsner moved to Neuschoo in 1869 and became the community's first preacher (until 1872). At the beginning, the meetings took place in a barn in the Schweindorf colony , later they had to move to a brick factory, as there were often more than 400 listeners. On May 31, 1869, a chapel was consecrated there by Bishop Ludwig Jacoby. The building was built in-house using bricks from the nearby brick factory. Schmidt made the property on the "Vossbarg" available. This explains the unusual fact that the church is outside the village, as it were in the middle of the green. Membership dwindled around 1900 when many emigrants to America left the community. Others rejoined the regional church. In 1897 the community had 135 members and 35 trial members. In 1966 the independent Aurich district was dissolved and merged with Neuschoo. In the course of a comprehensive renovation of the church between 1975 and 1977, a new entrance hall and larger meeting rooms were created. Today around 100 people attend the Sunday service, which has been celebrated together with Aurich since 2010, where services no longer take place in the Methodist Church. The community has a wide catchment area that covers about 50 km in an east-west direction.

Building description and equipment

A squat tower on a square floor plan is attached to the nave, which also serves as the entrance to the church. Halfway up the tower there are two small windows and a round window above. In the long sides of the church, the original windows have not been preserved, but modern pentagonal windows have been broken into. The interior is simple and was renovated in 1975. The parquet floor was newly laid and the ceiling was paneled with wood. Gustav Brönstrup created the organ in 1953, which has eleven stops on a manual and pedal.

literature

Menno Smid : East Frisian Church History (= East Frisia in the protection of the dike. Vol. 6). Self-published, Pewsum 1974.

See also

Web links

Commons : Bethlehemkirche (Neuschoo)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Menno Smid: Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte (= East Friesland in the protection of the dike. Vol. 6). Self-published, Pewsum 1974, p. 548.
  2. ↑ a b c Samtgemeinde Holtriem: The ev.-meth. Neuschoo Church , accessed on August 10, 2018.
  3. ^ Menno Smid: Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte (= East Friesland in the protection of the dike. Vol. 6). Self-published, Pewsum 1974, p. 549.
  4. ↑ Church Portrait , accessed on August 10, 2018th

Coordinates: 53 ° 35 ′ 5.1 ″  N , 7 ° 29 ′ 26.7 ″  E