Thomas Fair

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Thomas Mass (also: Thomas Mass ) is a form of worship of the Evangelical Church with ecumenical approaches. In the Catholic area this liturgical form is called Jonah worship .

Goal setting

The Thomas Mass is intended to address questioning Christians , those who doubt their faith, frustrated churchgoers and those who don't like worship. It is shaped by new songs, own and new thoughts, appealing preaching, the Lord's Supper to touch and gives the opportunity to observe, empathize, slowly approach, participate. Its name comes from the disciple Thomas , who, according to Joh 20,24-29  LUT , doubted the resurrection of Jesus until he recognized it by directly feeling and experiencing the wounds.

The special feature of this service is not in its elements, but in the process of its creation and implementation, because many lay people are active together with a few full-time employees.

procedure

A Thomas fair begins when the participants move in. The headmaster wears a liturgical dress (such as an alb ), the other participants a (white) scarf. In a Thomas fair, chants from Taizé are mainly sung. The opening part consists of songs, prayers and readings. A typical element is the “cloakroom prayer”, which symbolizes “arriving and leaving”. A special feature of the Thomasmesse is the "open phase", which lasts around 15 to 30 minutes ("change phase"). At different locations in the church, visitors can take advantage of various offers, such as meditating, writing down prayer requests, receiving a blessing or having a pastoral conversation.

There is a Last Supper in every Thomas Mass , in the (Catholic) Jonah service no communion is given.

history

The Thomas Mass began in Helsinki , where Pastor Olli Valtonen , who worked as an editor, longed for a service in which he could draw his own energy and in which the contemporary, who was hardly interested in the church, with his questions and Could find wishes again.

Since this wish shared him with other Christians, a group of 40 people began to meet regularly to talk and pray about how a service could be designed that would appeal to people today. The result was the Thomas fair. It has been celebrated every Sunday evening in the Agricola Church in Helsinki since 1989 .

The Thomas fair has also been celebrated in Germany since 1993 , first in Winsen an der Luhe and in Hanover , soon followed by Thomas fair in Bremen Cathedral and in other places, now in around 50 cities in Germany.

organization

In the beginning, the Thomasmesse initiatives were overseen by the VELKD community college, which organized annual meetings for mutual exchange. This resulted in the “Network Thomasmesse Initiatives”.

In 2011, responsibility was transferred to the EKKW Preachers' Seminar , Divine Service Office. In addition, the network is now represented by an elected group of speakers who prepare the next meeting and represent the initiatives externally.

literature

Web links