Hundreds queue for 'Erotic Church Service'

Yes, this really is a picture from a recent liturgy celebrated at a Protestant church in Cologne, as reported here. Thanks to Chris Gillibrand for his translation, which I've shamelessly lifted from his CathCon blog. I think this is a first for the Protestant Church anywhere. What a relief that it should have happened in Germany, and not the US or the UK. Is this Church of Carthusians part of one of the numerous Protestant assemblies worldwide that are 'in bed with' with the CofE or TEC, so to speak? Preliminary enquiries with the CofE in London suggest they think not, because they're not part of the EKD. However, Chris's own clarification, that I've put at the end, indicates otherwise. Meanwhile, read on for Chris's translation or the original in Kölner Stadt-Anzeigerbelow. (Update: CofE insists are definitely neither 'in bed with' nor 'in communion with' this lot. See end for their statement.)

'A female dancer dances in a skin coloured stocking in the middle of the church in front of the altar. She crawls about on the floor and wraps herself in a hanging down white cloth. Is this a blasphemous provocation, a scoffing at the Christian religion?

'No it is only one of the items on the agenda of the Protestant Church Assembly. The six-hundred-year-old church, the Church of the Carthusians in the south of Cologne has become the stage for an erotic church service. Nearly one thousand interested people waited outside the door of the former monastery, despite a thunderstorm- but in the end there was only room for four hundred people.

'For those who managed to get in, they had to take off their shoes on a white painted church interior. Above the entrance, there was the caption, “a warm welcome to the Vineyard of Love”. The space between the benches had been overlaid with velvet and from the ceiling wine and rose leaves were strewn onto the spectators. A man came to the microphone and announced, This is an erotic church service, can you move a bit closer together, all of you. This was followed by saxophone music and dance.

'The vicar arrived in a black cassock and barefoot. He announced that eroticism and lust are not taboo areas pushed aside by God. In fact, "lust has to be lived out", said Armin Beuscher, who tempered his speech immediately, by saying, “we are of course today in this service only able to implement this in a limited manner”.

'He talks about his family doctor who once surprised him with the question, “Do you pray with your wife regularly and do you make love regularly?” He was at first embarrassed and later became conscious of the deep meaning in this question, that both spirituality and eroticism are nourished by repetition. It is therefore certainly part of life which has been shown in the TV series “O God, Vicar” when he immediately after sleeping with a woman then went to a funeral. The speech at the grave, immediately thereafter came under the motto of the Church Assembly, “Lively, Powerful and more Spicy”. Beuscher’s conclusion was therefore “ perhaps we clergy should go more often to bed with our loved ones.”

'The faithful were then asked to take part in an anointing ritual in which they should massage the forehead and hands of the person sitting next to them. Some go further and embrace each other whilst others kiss. The atmosphere gets more relaxed. This is how most church services should be said Birgit Kruger (59 years old) from near Hamburg and the Bavarian Gertrude Schirmer (72 years old) said “I found the anointment most beautiful”. Then they all said an Our Father together and then Vicar Beuscher admonishes the parish with the words “praise God with your body, your lust and tenderness”. Judging by the enthusiastic applause, the audience fully intend to do this.'

The Church of Carthusians is part of the Protestant Church Assembly. During its recent meeting, where this service was discussed, Cardinal Meisner invited delegates to Cologne Cathedral. So this indicates that this body is well within the ecumenical loop. If so, is it conceivable that an 'ecumenical representative' of this lot might end up at Lambeth 2008 as an observer? In the meantime the unimpeachable Martyn Minns, the discreetly faithful Gene Robinson and a number of other extremely orthodox Anglican bishops will be excluded.

According to Chris, who saw this reported on German television, the newspaper article translated above in no way conveys the full sordid reality of the whole thing. Ironic, as he comments on his blog, that one reason behind the Reformation was the supposed 'decadence' of the Catholic Church. St Augustine would have had fun with this lot, both before and after his own Damascene experience I suspect. But what would the authors of the Carthusian Rule make of it? Reading this certainly helped me understand better some of the reasons for the Catholic priestly rule of celibacy. Original sin? There's nothing original here, that's for sure. Pity those who imagine there is.

Update: Is the Church of Carthusians in communion with the CofE? No, says the CofE.

This is what Chris says: 'The congregration there is part of Kirche-Koelne. The Cologne church grouping is part of the Rheinland Protestants which hosted the Kirchentag, which is itself nominally independent from the EKD [the body the Meissen agreement was made with] as a result of Second World War [no more officially organised mass rallies]. The Rheinland Protestants however are part of the EKD. The erotic event itself was part of the official programme of the Kirchentag. Things are never simple in Germany.'

This is what CofE says: 'The German Protestant Kirchentag (DEKT) is a lay-led festival launched in 1949, whose organisation is independent of the 'official' Church. As we understand it, the 'Erotic Church Service' was organised by an independent special interest group as part of this year's DEKT programme, among approximately 3,000 other debates, church services, concerts etc, which together form one of the largest Christian festivals in Europe.

'The venue where the church service took place, the Evangelische Karthäuserkirche, is part of the Evangelischer Kirchenverband Köln und Region, which again is part of the regional church Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland, which is a member Church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). The Church of England and the EKD are in ecumenical relationship (not 'communion') through the Meissen Agreement.'

So they are in 'ecumenical relationship'. Is that how the Anglican Communion might end up describing its relationship with its own constituent parts? Still conceivable that some of them might end up at Lambeth as ecumenical observers. 

Comments

[JonGraHar]

I believe there is nothing new under the sun; what already is has been done.

This reminds me of the worship and reverly that the Israelites committed at Mt. Sinai and how the Corinthian church were yoking themselves to temple prostitutes.

Exodus 32 shows how easily it is to offend God in the name of "worship."

[Joshua]

2 timothy 3:-4 is all I can think of when I see this

[AS]

Maranatha! Our Lord comes to Judge the World.

[Bob Murdock]

Absolutely appaling!. Yet in keeping with the blaspheomous times in which we live.

It is another indication that we are living in Th Last Times before Jesus comes to rule

[Bob K]

My God Almighty have mrecy on them and us.

[AW]

2 Timothy 3
Perilous Times and Perilous Men
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

[Chris Gillibrand]

100 percent accuracy of translation is not possible, as a literal translation inevitably looses meaning.

However, (Oxford Duden dictionary for reference) there are three senses of the German word lust- first, feeling, second, pleasure or joy and third, in this context, given the title of the service, most relevant (same sense of Begierde) desire; (geschlechtlich) desire; lust (usu. derog.); as in die Lust des Fleisches (geh.) the desires pl. or lusts pl. of the flesh.

Perhaps the preacher was trying to shelter behind the other meanings but that is as unconvincing as the Anglican evasions.

[Paul Godfrey]

Don't like to spoil anyone's fun, but the translation is poor in places - especially the use of the word lust. Lust in German (and it is the word in the German article linked to) does not mean lust - it simply means desire without any negative or even specifically sexual shades. Wollust (not used by the preacher) is what we call lust and is not what the preacher was encouraging.
Mind you, I still think it all sounds barking and a bad idea...

[Stephen Trew]

There may be links between the CofE and the EKD, the CofE has links with many christian groups worldwide. But that should not be the story. A controversial service took place and that worthy of reporting. But to draw the CofE into a story that is about a German service for goodness sake, and say it 'is in bed with' the Church of Carthusians strikes of gutter journalism. Perhaps the Times has been taking journalistic lessons from another publication it 'is in bed with' - the News of the World.

[Chris Gillibrand]

Ever since the attempted establishment of the Bishopric in Jerusalem as an ecumenical venture between German protestants and the Church of England, the question has never been properly answered by the Church of England. “Is the Church of England a Protestant church or is she a member, in some sense, of a wider Catholic religious reality?” - albeit that this putative membership is presently self-defined. The inability or unwillingness to answer the question actually hinders ecumenical progress, as neither Protestant or Catholic know precisely what they are dealing with. The idea of the Anglican Church as a bridge has been falsified by historical events.

The reaction to his Tract 90 proved to John Henry later Cardinal Newman that the Church of England was not Catholic and the case of the Jerusalem Bishopric that she was indeed Protestant.

This is what makes the Church of England’s attempts to distance itself from the erotic antics in Cologne so important.

The structural and organisational relationships within the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD) and also the Kirchentag have been explained above.

But links exist at every level between the EKD and the Church of England. For instance, here are the lists of the links between the Dioceses.

The Bishop of Liverpool attended the Kirchentag as his Diocese is twinned with the EKD in the whole of the Rheinland. He features in the official programme.

The Dioceses of Chichester and Norwich are the only ones linked with Catholic Dioceses. The former I suspect was a result of the activities of the great and still living Anglo-Catholic former Bishop of the Diocese, Eric Kemp. The vast majority of the links are with the EKD.

And both the home parish of the “presider” at the erotic service and the parish where the event took place are both regular members of the EKD. The erotic service was also in the official programme of the Kirchentag.

For the Church of England to say that they are not in communion with the EKD is disingenuous. The two churches enjoy a state of “interim eucharistic sharing”. This clearly includes, in the literal sense, of being in communion.

And certainly on Thursday, 7th June at 6.30 p.m, the Church of England was in communion with the EKD at a service held by the Anglican Church of Cologne and Bonn

Bishop Rowellwas celebrating and I am sure that he did not send away German Protestants without communion.

There is even a
British Committee for the Kirchentag..

As the Church of England and the EKD themselves say "The relationship ……. has proved to be so good that it is to be expanded and deepened still further."

Anglicans attempts to run away from the scene of the erotic service are unconvincing.

[Chris Gillibrand]

While I cannot speak for The Times, the links are hardly tenuous between the the organisers of the service, the EKD, the Kirchentag and the Church of England. Will post at greater length shortly but even the modern ecumenical age cannot postpone answering the question that has been asked of it since the Tractarians, if not before, "Does it consider itself a Protestant Church or part, in some sense, of the wider Catholic Church?". The lack of clear official answer to this is the biggest barrier to ecumenical understanding.

[Stephen Trew]

Why is the times trying to make a tenuous link between this service and the CofE? That strikes of poor journalism to me. Report the facts please.

[Glenn]

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn theirs ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths..... The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such things come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. (2 Tim. 4:3-4, 1 Tim.4:1-2)

[kate brennan]

Well, well, people will believe in anything. Lusting after another woman is a sin as far as Jesus is concerned (Matthew 5ish). The problem with the 'grace through faith alone' is the word 'alone': it is 'grace through faith', 'alone' implies all stops here - once out of Egypt (the world) you'r not meant to want to go back you have to hit the rules at some point. This is what you get with a morally undemanding belief.....The statutes, precepts and laws are as eternal as He is for all His subjects. Ref Psalm 119 - enjoy!

[Dawn]

Ok, where in the bible does it say we need to live out our lust? It doesn't. God says lust is sin -- and anything contrary to God's Word is to be cast down out of our minds. So what bible are they reading?

[Dino]

Was this in Köln or Los Ángeles?
(rg replies: Cologne)

[Gareth Rhymes]

This is horrific. Church services need to build the congrigation up in the Lord by preaching His word from the Bible. This is because only there do we hear the authentic word of God, conentrating on salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Any service not concentrating on the Word, and so Christ, should be discouraged, but especialy when false prophets preach the sin should be embraced instead. I pray that they turn from this horror. God bless,

[Stephen Marsden]

People taking their shoes off?
People anointing and (gasp) kissing each other?
Saxophone music?
A (gasp) female dancer?
This is supposed to be erotic?
And sordid?

It all sounds about as erotic as a session of General Synod on a wet Wednesday in November, or as sordid as a Christmas party in Belgravia.

[Chris Gillibrand]

"No sin can separate us from Him (God), even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day." Dr Martin Luther 1521

[jim nuzzo]

A far cry from "Into Great Silence" I should think.

I can only hope the brothers of the Carthusian Order remain unaware of this enterprise using their name.

[ash]

Ah, now this is an old trick. I've just finished reading a book about NOS, who used bikini-clad dancers on various occasions...

[Matt Wardman]

A very, very familiar and rather tedious heresy.

I wonder how long it will be before A.N.Wilson published a book about it?