Sacred buildings in the Antarctic
Sacred buildings in Antarctica have been erected since 1956 to meet the need of a growing number of Christians to gather for worship . This goes hand in hand with the increasing development and exploration of the continent of Antarctica .
History and environment
Shortly after 1900 whaling stations and expedition camps were set up in the Antarctic area. Already the neighboring westerly wind zone in the area of the Roaring Forties and Howling Fifties was considered extremely demanding by seafarers, the transition to the Southern Ocean was described with the common phrase "Beyond the 40th parallel there is no law, beyond the 50th there is no God". There have been research stations in Antarctica since the 1950s . Staying in the Antarctic places considerable demands on mental stability. The researchers concerned are often separated from their families and their home environment for months.
After a few military ventures, a strong interest in the exploration of the Antarctic began worldwide in the 1950s. The scientific work on the sixth continent was systematically expanded. The International Geophysical Year 1957–1958 acted as a major drive for civil research cooperation . Several important seismicists who were also Jesuit clergy participated in the Antarctic excursions in the vicinity , such as Edward A. Bradley (1923–1996) from Xavier University , Cincinnati , Henry F. Birkenhauer (1914–2003) from John Carroll University , Cleveland , and J. Joseph Lynch (1894–1987), director of the seismographic station at Fordham University , New York City , and Daniel J. Linehan (1904–1987) of the Weston Observatory in Boston .
There have been around 85 research stations in Antarctica since the 1950s, around half of which are only used in summer. Within the Antarctic Convergence , the French Kerguelen is home to the Catholic Church Notre-Dame des Vents in Port-aux-Français , built in the 1950s, and a Norwegian-Lutheran chapel in Grytviken , South Georgia, built in 1913 at the instigation of Carl Anton Larsen . The Christ Church Cathedral in Stanley on the Falkland Islands serves as Anglican Bishop church for the Falkland Islands and the British Antarctic Territory. The catholic cathedral of Punta Arenas on Tierra del Fuego is the cathedral church for the Chilean claimed territory in Antarctica.
Almost all research stations have a small meeting room that is intended for church services. At larger stations such as more committed communities, separate buildings for religious purposes are common, often improvised steel containers.
Activities and buildings in the southern polar region
The first cleric in Antarctica is William Menster (1913–2007). He took 1947 as a Catholic priest with the rank of lieutenant commander of the US Navy in the Operation Highjump part and celebrated with over 2000 participants of different denominations a Holy Mass on the continent. In the same year a wooden cross and a statue of Our Lady on Mount Carmel were erected near the Arturo Prat Station in Chile . It is considered a monument to the time before the International Geophysical Year and is one of the protected Antarctic monuments .
In 1956, the first Chapel of the Snows was built as a non-denominational Christian chapel in the United States- operated McMurdo Station . After a building made entirely of ice in the Argentine Belgrano II station, it is the southernmost sacred building in the world. Catholic and Protestant services are offered regularly . The chapel is also open for events and meetings of other faith communities, such as Mormons , Baha'i and Buddhists , and also serves secular communities such as B. Alcoholics Anonymous as a meeting place. The chapel was rebuilt after a fire in 1978 and consecrated again in 1989.
In 1976, a chapel dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi was built on the Argentine Esperanza station . The also Catholic chapel of the Virgin of Lujan can be found on the Marambio station .
The practice of religion was forbidden on Russian stations during Soviet times. In 2002 Patriarch Alexius II initiated the “A Temple for the Antarctic” initiative ( Russian Храм Антарктиде ). In 2004 the Trinity Church on King George Island near the Russian Bellingshausen Station was consecrated. The church, built from Russian larch and cedar wood, is lavishly furnished and deliberately positioned as a landmark that can be seen from afar. The Holy Trinity Church, which is subordinate to the Moscow Patriarch, was initially looked after all year round by a single priest, who was provided with a second clergyman after a real cry for help. Both are also involved in the repair and structural maintenance of the station. The line-up changes every year. The first church wedding in Antarctica took place there on January 29, 2007. The husband Eduardo Aliaga Ilabaca was part of the crew of the Chilean station, the wife Angelina Tschuldibina is Russian. Meanwhile the first baptisms took place at the station.
The Ivan Rilski Chapel near the Bulgarian St. Kliment Ohridski base on Livingston Island is an Orthodox chapel . The Catholic Chapel of Santa María Reina de la Paz in the Chilean Villa Las Estrellas on King George Island is a container converted for church services that can accommodate 36 people on twelve benches.
Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo Station
Exterior view of the Trinity Church on King George Island
Interior of the Holy Trinity Church
The Bulgarian Ivan Rilski Chapel
The Chilean Chapel of Santa María Reina de la Paz
The Buromski Island cemetery, now towered over by a Russian Orthodox cross, is one of the most important monuments in Antarctica, with over 60 people buried there.
particularities
 
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Sacred buildings in the Antarctic (Dfk: Trinity Chapel, K: Carmel) |
As part of the Pakistani Antarctic Program , Pakistani Muslims are also on duty in the Antarctic at Jinnah Antarctic Station , but they do not have a separate mosque there. Literal adherence to Muslim requirements, such as prayers of the day or fasting during Ramadan , is not possible south of the Arctic Circle due to the extended polar days .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Melinda Mueller: What the ice gets: Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition 1914-1916 , Van West & Co., 2000, ISBN 0-9677021-1-9
- ↑ Compare also Geology and Religion: A History of Harmony and Hostility, Martina Kölbl-Ebert, p. 142, Geological Society, 2009, worldwide the Jesuit mission stations and research by Jesuit clergy constituted essential sources of data and contributions to geophysical research before 1957 .
- ^ William HK Lee, Paul Jennings, Carl Kisslinger, Hiroo Kanamori: International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology , Part 1, Academic Press, September 27, 2002, p. 24, ISBN 0-12-440652-1
- ↑ Grytviken Church (Whalers Church) . Wondermondo. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ↑ a b c Gabrielle Walker: Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent , Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013, ISBN 0-15-101520-1
- ↑ a b William Menster: Strong Men South ( en ). Bruce Pub. Co., Milwaukee 1949.
- ↑ HSM 35: Virgin of Carmen Statue in the Antarctic Protected Areas Database on the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat website (English, Spanish, French, Russian), accessed November 16, 2019
- ↑ a b Base Esperanza . La Autentica Defensa. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ^ The Association of Religion Data Archives: Antarctica . Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ^ Base Antártica Esperanza . Fundación Marambio. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ↑ www.bbc.co.uk:Flat pack church for Russian workers, accessed July 28, 2009
- ↑ Flock of Antarctica's Orthodox temple celebrates Holy Trinity Day . Serbian Orthodox Church. May 29, 2004. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ^ First Orthodox church in Antarctica , en.ria.ru
- ↑ a b Alexandra Nikiforowa: Повесть о холодном рае. Ч.1 (story of a cold paradise, interview with father Gabriel Bogatschichin, who wintered in 2005) . taday.ru. December 22, 2008. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ↑ Первое в Антарктике венчание прошло на российской станции (First ever Antarctic church wedding took place at a Russian station) ( Russian ) February 1, 2007. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- ↑ Патриаршее подворье в Антарктиде (Patriarch's mission in the Antarctic) (Russian) . March 29, 2007.
- ↑ Church in Antarctica ( Memento of July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on www.waponline.it (English), accessed on October 7, 2013
- ↑ HSM 9: Buromsky Island Cemetery in the Antarctic Protected Areas Database on the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat website (English, Spanish, French, Russian), accessed November 16, 2019
- ↑ See the illustration for areas north of the Arctic Circle by Tim Krohn: Essen am helllichten Tag? Ramadan at the Arctic Circle ( Memento from July 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on tagesschau.de