Life change

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The turn of life (also a blessing celebration ) is a church offer for young people without denomination who want to celebrate their transition to adult life, but for whom participation in the youth consecration is not an option. The Christian churches are responding to the need of people who are distant from the church for new rituals, as they already offer in blessing celebrations for couples, for newborn children or for funerals of non-denominationalists. They are celebrations at the transition of a life path.

This celebration found its origin in 1999 in the diocese of Erfurt . This idea was established there by the then cathedral priest and current auxiliary bishop of the Erfurt diocese, Reinhard Hauke . There are now such celebrations in other East German cities such as B. Magdeburg and Halle, where these celebrations partly take place under ecumenical responsibility and where due to the great demand, a separate employee position has already been created for the preparation of the young people.

At such a blessing celebration there are preparatory meetings with thematic content that clearly thematizes the life of young people and also the transition from child to adult, such as B. friendship, dreams, responsibility, etc. These are dealt with in a playful way and through discussions over several months. In some cities, this includes designing a social project. The parents of the young people can also be involved in this preparation if requested so that it can be a celebration for the whole family.

The ceremony takes place in a church and typically includes a greeting, a speech and a blessing from the leader of the ceremony - it does not have to be a priest or deacon - as well as symbolic gestures (showing personal items, giving candles or flowers to close relatives or members of the parish), musical performances and short statements by the young people, accompanied by liturgical organ music . A special feature of the turning point of life celebration is that it varies traditional church rites as a ritual offer of the church to people who are not affiliated with the church and adapts them to the needs and situation of non-denominational youth. In this way, requests and wishes are formulated that are comparable to intercessions in the Christian liturgy, but are not addressed to God. Similar to the readings from the Old and New Testaments in the liturgy, non-biblical texts are presented that address the question of the meaning of life. Parents or close relatives give flowers as a token of encouragement for the future. Self-selected songs and self-played pieces of music frame the individual actions. At the end there is a solemn prayer of blessing over the young people, in which the blessing of God is requested on their behalf.

In contrast to confirmation, no Christian confession is required for the celebration of the turning point of life. However, questions about the meaning of life and religiosity are discussed in preparation for the celebration. The young people are given the option of placing their lives on the horizon of Christian faith.

literature

  • Emilia Handke: Religious youth celebrations “between church and other world”. A historical, systematic and empirical study on alternatives to youth consecration for which the church is (partly) responsible. Leipzig 2016 (Work on Practical Theology 65), ISBN 978-3-374-04762-8 .
  • Reinhard Hauke: The celebration of the turning point in life. A Christian help in finding meaning for the unbaptized. In: Celebrating God in post-Christian society. The missionary dimension of the liturgy. Edited by Benedikt Kranemann [u. a.]. Stuttgart 2000, pp. 32-48, ISBN 3-460-33046-5 .
  • Birgit Jeggle-Merz: Youth rituals in the church. A liturgical scientific look at new forms of celebration. In: Theology of the Present. Volume 56, 2013, pp. 258-271.
  • Benedikt Kranemann: Rituals in Diaspora Situations. New forms of church activity in a secular society. In: Objective Celebration and Subjective Belief? Contributions to the relationship between liturgy and spirituality. Edited by Stefan Böntert. Regensburg 2011 (Studies on Pastoral Liturgy 32, pp. 253-273), ISBN 978-3-7917-2373-0 .
  • Petr Štica: The celebration of the turning point of life from a social-ethical perspective. In: Theology of the Present. Volume 56, 2013, pp. 288-298.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the Diocese of Erfurt
  2. ^ Celebration of the turning point in the diocese of Magdeburg. Retrieved July 22, 2019 .