find • fight • follow
find • fight • follow is the title of the largest youth church services in the German-speaking area, which took place between 2003 and 2011 in eastern Austria. They were “a mixture of pop events and modern youth worship services” and were attended by an average of 1,500 young people. find • fight • follow was a project of the Catholic Youth Vienna .
history
The unusual youth services were launched in 2003 on the initiative of Fr. Georg Sporschill SJ and organized by a group of volunteers around the then chairman of the Catholic Youth of the Archdiocese of Vienna, Florian Unterberger. The aim was to build a bridge between the Christian message and the world of the young people. The first three services took place in the baroque basilica Maria Treu in the 8th district in Vienna and attracted between 1,300 and 2,000 visitors.
Due to the unexpected success and the great popularity of the visitors, it was decided to continue the services originally planned only as a series of three. Since then, the number of church services has fluctuated between three and ten events per year, with large churches in eastern Austria usually serving as the venues. The services were organized by young people from the surrounding parishes, who were supported by the leadership team, which continues to work on a voluntary basis.
After successful offshoots in Tyrol and Styria, the first find • fight • follow service took place outside the Archdiocese of Vienna in the 2008/2009 school year, in the Eisenstadt Cathedral in the Diocese of Eisenstadt.
From 2006 the responsibility for the services was in the hands of the computer science student Stephan Bazalka, who handed them over to Julia Steiner in 2009.
The last find • fight • follow church service took place on May 29, 2011 in Langenzersdorf. The service had around 1700 visitors and was the first time it was held in the open air in an outdoor pool.
features
Five features differentiated the youth services, which are mostly celebrated as masses, from conventional Catholic services:
- Rock and pop music (in the style of contemporary Christian music ) dominates the musical design of the services.
- All texts are formulated in a language that should be understandable for young people without church experience.
- So that the service is experienced as a celebration by the young people, a concert-compatible sound system and atmospheric lighting effects are used.
- Using unusual methods (video sequences, street surveys, pantomime sequences, 3D glasses, SMS surveys), the message of the service should be conveyed as vividly as possible and an experience guaranteed for as many senses as possible.
Great emphasis is placed on the musical quality: The "find-fight-follow band" has released a CD with the most popular pieces from the first seasons, at some church services there were guest appearances by well-known musicians and others. a. by Coshiva and Vincent Bueno . Kidney Loop, half of which consists of the original line-up of the find-fight-follow band, released their first CD "Quote for a Quickie" in 2008 and the FM4 sound park with the song "Gib mir den Ball" -Contest for the European Football Championship 2008 won.
Experience over the past few years has shown that church services provide strong impulses for normal parish services and support a reform of liturgical practice.
meaning
The find-fight-follow service series with its concept of offering large “event services” for young people is unique in the Catholic Church in Europe. Never before has an event concept been so consistently applied to Catholic services. This revolutionized previous forms of youth liturgy: by not only designing individual parts of the service to be “youth-friendly”, but also designing the entire content and framework under the aspect of addressing young people who are distant from the church.
The concept behind the event youth services is discussed in pastoral theological and liturgical science publications and also examined sociologically. The coordinators of find-fight-follow are regularly invited as guest speakers to pastoral theological and liturgical science conferences.
The find-fight-follow project has ensured within the Catholic Church that youth cultural forms of expression have their legitimate place in worship. The project has thus made a significant contribution to the foundation and reputation of the Vienna Youth Church, Austria's first youth church project. Various bishops ( Cardinal Christoph Schönborn , Bishop Paul Iby , Auxiliary Bishop Helmut Krätzl , Youth Bishop Franz Lackner , Youth Bishop Stephan Turnovszky ) have already celebrated at the event services.
criticism
The concept is viewed critically from various sides.
Critics who are more distant from the church accuse the organizer of using elements of youth culture (music, lighting technology, etc.) to ingratiate themselves with young people. The criticism here is that allegedly the same old ecclesiastical content would only be given in attractive new packaging or that young people would be “recruited” for the (Catholic) Church without it actually opening up.
From the conservative ecclesiastical area, the criticism primarily relates to the free handling of liturgical regulations. Here a " profanation " of the service is feared.
Publications
- G. Jansen: Touching, not teaching, in: Heiliger Dienst 4/2005, 246–253.
- J. Uhlik: Change in the pastoral style? Understanding of pastoralists and pastoral care for young people under the sign of an “adventure society”, series: Sociology, Vol. 63, 2007 200 pp., ISBN 978-3-8258-0313-1
- M. Schrom: Praying under the laser flash. Find. Fight. Follow. How young people celebrate worship differently today. Christ in the Present 1/2008, Pictures of the Present 5-8 (PDF; 6.2 MB)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kurier daily newspaper, January 22, 2003
- ↑ 1,700 young people were "born to live" on erzdioezese-wien.at on May 30, 2011
- ↑ http://www.findfightfollow.at/php/aboutfff.php
- ↑ The gap magazine, February 2, 2006