Ecumenical New Year's Eve Service on German TV

Gereon Alter and Sarah Vecera in the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Foto: Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Gereon Alter, Catholic Priest, and Sarah Vecera, Evangelical Theologian of the UEM, preach on the turn of the times and climate change. The WDR Radio Choir and singer Judy Bailey provide musical accompaniment for the service.

The churches have named the ecumenical ARD New Year's Eve service "A Fragile Year," which this year will take place in the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Europe's highest exhibition hall. The title is based on the successful exhibition "The Fragile Paradise," which can be seen in the Gasometer until November 2023. "The Gasometer with its current exhibition stands for so much that has moved people this year. And so we decided to celebrate the ecumenical service meditatively in this 'cathedral of industrial culture,'" says state pastor Petra Schulze, who is organizing the service with her Catholic colleague Klaus Nelißen. "Many certainties have been called into question this year and the global challenge of climate change is before our eyes as rarely before. It is good to talk about our worries and our hopes in front of the magnificent globe of the Gasometer," says the Catholic priest Gereon Alter from Essen. He will hold the service together with the evangelican theologian Sarah Vecera from the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) in Wuppertal. Gereon Alter is familiar to a large ARD audience as the "Wort zum Sonntag" speaker. Sarah Vecera is known as a preacher and as the author of the book, "My Dream of a Church Without Racism - How Did Jesus Become White." A native of Oberhausen, Germany, she says of the worship production, "It's cold in there - but that's also an issue with people in times of gas shortages. Their worries and needs, their petitions should have a place in this special service at the end of the year." The intercessions for the service come from a book of intercessions that has been on display in the gasometer since the beginning of fall. Numerous visitors have written their personal intentions for the new year. The prayer of the intercessions of the visitors of the Gasometer is accompanied by sounds of the guzheng, a traditional Chinese string instrument, payed by the artist Jingting Cai.