Family service

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A family church service is a target group worship service , which, in essential design elements, is geared towards children who are invited together with siblings, parents, friends and relatives. In the Catholic area, this is usually understood to mean a Sunday parish mass prepared by parents and children. In the Protestant area, the family service brings together adult and children's services, which traditionally took place separately from each other.

claim

The family church service is strongly catechetical and therefore thematic. He tries the balancing act between child evangelization (as in the children's church service or at children's Bible weeks) and the adult generation. This is usually solved by the children actively participating (for example through a play practiced in a children's church service), the liturgy , songs and prayers based on children and a short speech for the adults (instead of a long sermon). "The danger of the family worship service of failing to become a kind of extended children's worship service can best be countered if, biblical ... symbols are the focus of the worship service." The family worship service claims to be intergenerational and intergenerational. The church's indirect contact with the generation of young parents plays an important role in this: they hardly attend the normal Sunday service, but can be addressed for the family service through their children. The situation is similar with kindergarten or school enrollment services.

Wolfgang Steck critically described the family worship service as "self-portrayal of bourgeois family culture in the area of ​​the church"; The preparation team should therefore reflect on the family models it is conveying, says Wolfgang Ratzmann.

shape

Family worship services are a mixture of sermon, youth and children's worship ; active participation elements are common. It is possible to deviate from the liturgy (order of worship), but mostly it is only converted into other forms that are more understandable for children (and those who are distant from the church). The best known and most widespread form is the nativity play service on Christmas Eve .

The Protestant family service traditionally takes place on a Sunday as a replacement for the sermon or sacrament service. Often the beginning is set back slightly, which makes it “family-friendly”. Family services are often the prelude to church celebrations. The Directorate for Children's Masses (November 1, 1973) sets a framework for the Catholic community mass with children .

history

In the 1950s there were first experiments with child-friendly church services; in the 1960s, family services became the subject of catechetical and liturgical discussions. At first it was assumed on the part of the Protestants that the children would grow into the agenda of the main service, but in the course of the liturgical changes in the sixties and seventies, many congregations began to develop special family service liturgies. In the 1980s, the subject of the Lord's Supper with children was added in many congregations, which again led to an approach to agendaric forms. The main Protestant service, which was celebrated according to the historicist agenda of the 1950s, did not appeal to some of the church members whom the family service hoped to reach. So this wasn't just for children.

literature

  • Jo Hermans: Celebrating the Eucharist with children. A liturgical study on the participation of the child in the Eucharist in the past and present . Translated into German by Ernst Savelsberg. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1991.
  • Willi Hoffsümmer : The big book of children and family services . Herder-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-451-28964-4 .
  • Heriburg Laarmann: The large book of family worship services , Freiburg 2004, ISBN 345128474X .
  • Christoph Urban, Timo Rieg: The forgotten decade. Children, youth, worship. Why the Church has to change , Bochum 2004, ISBN 3928781723
  • Wolfgang Ratzmann: Family service . In: Hans-Christoph Schmidt-Lauber (Hrsg.): Handbook of the liturgy: liturgical science in theology and practice of the church . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 3rd revised and amended edition Göttingen 2003 pp. 820–831. ISBN 3-525-57210-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Eduard Nagel: Family service . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 3 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, Sp. 1173 .
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Ratzmann: Familiengottesdienst , Göttingen 2003, p. 830.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Ratzmann: Familiengottesdienst , Göttingen 2003, p. 822.
  4. ^ Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference: The Mass Celebration - Documents for Practice , 11th Edition Bonn 2009, pp. 145–162. ( PDF )
  5. ^ Wolfgang Ratzmann: Familiengottesdienst , Göttingen 2003, pp. 820f.