Moorhusen Baptist Chapel
The Moorhusen Baptist Chapel is located in the district of the same name in the East Frisian community of Südbrookmerland . It was built around 1900 and has since been rebuilt and expanded several times.
history
The starting point for the founding of Baptist churches in East Frisia were the Baptist churches of Jever (founded in 1840) and yours (founded in 1846). Johann Gerhard Oncken , who is considered the founder of the continental European Baptists, entrusted the bookbinder Anton Friedrich Remmers and the former elementary school teacher Johann Ludwig Hinrichs with the missionary work in Oldenburg and East Friesland, which was to take place in connection with the two mentioned communities. In his travel notes Remmers reports that he was evangelizing in Brookmerland from 1845 onwards. According to these notes, he preached from Jever in Aurich , Rechtsupweg and Marienhafe . Regular meetings were held in Upgant-Schott as early as 1849 . The young Baptist movement also found supporters in Moorhusen. At the beginning of January 1851 a barn was converted into a prayer house. In 1900, this meeting place no longer seems to have met the requirements, so that a new building was decided on, for which there are no more written records. A record of the general meeting of February 25, 1900 has been preserved. It says: “All members expressed the wish to have a room for the Sunday services for several reasons. This request was received by Habbo Wilts to carry it out this spring. Of course, this was accepted with joy with the promise to support him for this purpose to the best of our ability and with a grateful and willing heart. It was also decided to jointly bear the costs of the necessary items for the hall, such as catheters , benches and the like, and to cover them with a collection . Brother Roolf Ennenga, Rechtsupweg, donates some of the wood to the benches, and Br. Sieger Janshen from Greetsiel in Accord takes over the work , 3 marks per piece. ”The construction of the chapel was completed that same year. The front area was used as a place of worship, in the back there was a preacher's apartment and small stables.
In 1908 Moorhusen became an independent parish with 69 members. In 1936 the rooms became too small, so that a preacher's house was added to the chapel and the vacant rooms of the old apartment could be used as community rooms. In 1964 the chapel was rebuilt on a larger scale. The church service room, which is still in use today, was attached to the building. In 1973/74, the preacher's house was built in front of it. The last construction work so far took place in the years 2008 to 2010.
Description of the current chapel
The original church building has been completely rebuilt so that it can no longer be seen from the outside. If you enter the chapel through the main entrance facing Rüskeweg, you are initially in an anteroom in which - quite typical for a Baptist community center - there is the book table and the mailboxes with the names of the community members.
A door on the right leads into the worship room. The pews were removed after the last renovation work and replaced with seating. The eye falls on the simple communion table , behind which there are three chairs. The pulpit is to the left of the sacrament table; on the right is the electronic organ instrument that accompanies the chant of the church service. The baptistery is located under the wooden cross, which visually dominates the pulpit, table and organ . To the right and left of the baptistery are the changing rooms for the baptized. Nine colorful church windows, arranged as three groups of three on the right side of the church service room, provide the necessary light.
Another door leads from the anteroom into the cafeteria of the community center, which can be connected to the church service room in a relatively simple way if necessary. It can also be entered via its own entrance area from the community parking lot. The group rooms as well as the kitchen and the sanitary facilities of the Baptist chapel are located in the rear area of the building. The former pastor's apartment, which has its own entrance, now houses an office, the church's diaconal work, a meeting room and a guest apartment.
See also
literature
- Hermann Balder: History of the Baptist Congregation Moorhusen (East Friesland) , Hamburg undated (1935?)
- Evangelical Free Church Community Moorhusen (ed.): Festschrift. 100 years Evangelical Free Church Congregation (Baptists) Moorhusen. 1908 - 2008 , Südbrookmerland-Moorhusen 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ H. Balder: History of the Baptist Congregation Moorhusen (Ostfriesland) , Hamburg undated, p. 3
- ↑ Joseph Lehmann: History of the German Baptists. Hamburg 1896, p. 57. (online)
- ↑ According to E. Agena from brookmerlandarchiv.de , the building documents for this district in the Aurich district were destroyed in the Second World War , viewed on August 26, 2010.
- ↑ a b E. Agena: The Origin of the Chapel , viewed on August 26, 2010.
- ^ Albert West: Chronic notes of a contemporary on the 25th anniversary of the Evangelical Free Church Community (Baptists) Aurich. accessed on August 26, 2010.
Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '23.7 " N , 7 ° 21' 32.4" E