Frankfurt: Dreikönigs-Kirche

Today I wandered around downtown Frankfurt quite a bit. There were two highlights to mention, the Dreikönigs-Kirche (Three-kings Church), & the main shopping district of Frankfurt, called Zeil.

Dreikönigs-Kirche am Main:

I will not say much about Zeil, except concur with the Lonely Planet guide in stating that it is an excellent place to shop (apparently it is the busiest shopping district in Europe). It is located between the Hauptwache and the Konstablerwache.

The high point of the day for me however came as I visited the Dreikönigs-Kirche, an Evangelical Lutheran church. I attended a Musikalischer Vespergottesdiesnt (a musical worship service), and was really blessed by it. It was short, only 50 minutes long, but it had all the necessary elements to facilitate union with God: prayer, spoken and sung liturgy, 2 Scripture readings, and a homily. In addition, all of these elements were supported by baroque organ music (this was, after all, a musical Vesper).

The organist played 4 magnificent pieces: Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780, Fantasie und Fugue F-Dur, and Zeuch ein zu deinen Toren), Dietrich Buxtehude (1617-1707, Komm, heiliger Geist, Herr Gott), and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750, Komm, heiliger Geist, Herr Gott). The best piece was by far the final piece, by Bach.

Some more thoughts:

- Only about 40 people attended. The church probably seats 500. Sad.

- Among the attendees were at least a dozen young people. Encouraging.

- The homily was a reading by Karl Barth on Pfingsten (Pentecost). Intellectually stimulating, theologically deep and profound, but perhaps inaccessible to the average parishioner (well, at least the average Canadian parishioner). Also, no practical application given.

- The people at the church were friendly and inviting. I had a nice conversation with a few people, including both parish priests.

- The term Evangelisch (evangelical) seems to have a different meaning in Germany. I think it means what we would call liberal in Canada. Although, a liberal church in Canada would never ever read anything by Karl Barth. I'm confused. I'll have to dig a little to find out more....

- I've had very little exposure to Lutheran liturgy (just a little at Regent), but the sung liturgy is especially beautiful. I wonder whether JS Bach had anything to do with that... It seems to me that spoken liturgy is better in an Anglcan setting though.

- Finally, I was disappointed with the interior of the church. It was "bare, blank, white". If God is creative by nature, and he has given us the same creative talents, why would we create worship centres that give an impression of emptiness rather than fullness?

Here are some pictures of the church: