St. Augustine's of Canterbury (Wiesbaden)

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The English Church in Wiesbaden, taken from the adjacent Villa Clementine

The Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury (colloquially English Church called) is a neo-Gothic church in Wiesbaden that the English-speaking Anglican congregation serves.

Geographical location

The church is on the corner of Frankfurter Strasse and Wilhelmstrasse , right next to the Villa Clementine and in the immediate vicinity of the Warmer Damm park .

building

The architect of the church, Theodor Goetz
The church in front of the addition of the tower in 1887/88, photo by an unknown photographer from the photo album of an English spa guest in Wiesbaden

In 1844 a building committee was founded, to which the Kurhausaktiengesellschaft made the property available in 1863. The church was built from 1863 according to designs by Wiesbaden's senior building officer Theodor Goetz for the British spa guests of the Anglican denomination of the then world spa Wiesbaden and inaugurated in 1865. At first it was a relatively simple hall church made of brick in neo-Gothic style, which was modeled on English chapels . The floor plan is asymmetrical: In addition to the main nave, there is only a single aisle to the east. The aisle ends in a polygonal finish. The church tower , which was placed to the east next to the main facade, and the choir of the main nave were not added until 1887/88.

The church is a cultural monument due to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

history

As the church of the English spa guests, the service there was stopped during the First World War . During the Nazi era , the property was expropriated by the state, and the church was badly damaged in World War II . After the war, which placed US - occupying power the building as a chapel restores that the US military has been used to this in 1955 a new chapel in the American residential Hainerberg opened. The property was given to the Bishop of London in order to serve again as an Anglican house of worship. However, since many of the parishioners still came from the US military, the formerly British immigrant church increasingly became a hybrid of the Church of England and the US Episcopal Church . She used the American Book of Common Prayer , for example , and the pastor was called through the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe .

In January 1966 the building was hit by a devastating fire caused by a fault in the heating. The church was restored with the money paid out by the fire insurance and donations from the congregation. The organ that had already been delivered and not yet installed was not covered by the insurance.

In 1980, with the establishment of the diocese in Europe , whose area of ​​responsibility was previously assigned to the Bishop of London and which is responsible for the parishes of the Church of England on the European continent, the Bishop in Europe took over responsibility for the Wiesbaden congregation, but left it his US colleague in Paris . At the end of the 1990s, the congregation became a member of the Convocation of Episcopal (then American) Churches in Europe. The building still belongs to the Diocese of London.

In 2003 the ward first called a woman pastor, Rev. Martha Hubbard, who previously served in St. Mark's Ward in Penn Yan, New York, in the Diocese of Rochester .

The church today

Interior during a service (2015)

As a migrant church, the national composition of the congregation is diverse: 37% are US-Americans, 26% are British, 20% German and 17% have other or more nationalities, including Canadian , Australian , South African , Italian and Nigerian . The church council includes British, German, Austrian , South African and US citizens. The parish pastor has been Rev. Christopher Easthill of the Episcopal Church with British and German citizenship since March 2014.

The bishop of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe told the press in January 2014 that the congregation had to leave the church building and was looking for new premises. The decision was temporarily suspended shortly after the pastor changed in spring 2014, while the financial and structural requirements for most of the parishioners' desire to remain in the traditional building were examined. In the meantime, the decision has been completely reversed, so that the renovation of the church could be tackled by the community.

In addition to the Sunday services (usually in the form of the Eucharist ), children's services and a house group , services are also held on Wednesdays.

In August 2016 the church was the venue for performances as part of the Wiesbaden Biennale and hit the headlines with a performance by Gina-Lisa Lohfink .

literature

  • Folkhard Cremer u. a .: "Dehio". Hessen II - Darmstadt district . Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 , p. 813.
  • Hilary Norman: The English Church in Wiesbaden: A History . Dierks printing company, Taunusstein 2003
  • Stefan Weiller: Wiesbaden part of the big world . In: Wiesbadener Tagblatt, May 8, 2008

Web links

Commons : Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury (Wiesbaden)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dehio.
  2. ↑ Dehio. The stained glass windows are modern.
  3. ^ Community newsletter November 2006, p. 4.
  4. ↑ Wiesbadener Kurier September 18, 2014, p. 13, The chances have risen again
  5. ^ A cure for the church: Be part of it [Flyer der Kirchengemeinde, 2015].
  6. ↑ http://m.bild.de/unterhaltung/fahrten/gina-lisa-lohfink/bizarrer-auftritt-in-der-kirche-47558244.bildMobile.html

Coordinates: 50 ° 4 ′ 48 ″  N , 8 ° 14 ′ 46 ″  E