As a "mediator between god and the community" pastor jens arnold introduced his new religion teacher birgit grater to the evangelic church community in neuhaus. In a festive service in the local st.-matthaus church on sunday, she was officially inducted into her ministry.
Effective immediately, the 48-year-old will fill a half-time position. It was finally awarded to the church community this fall after three years of wrangling, as arnold reported. Birgit grater will now take care of ecumenical projects, the organization of children’s bible days, and the supervision of confirmands, among other things. She will continue to be involved in family and children’s services. The community of adelsdorf wanted to get to know them better as quickly as possible.
Until now, grater, who has lived in the region for 20 years, was active in hochstadt. Two years ago, however, her position in the church congregation there was eliminated, so that the mother of three temporarily concentrated exclusively on the pedagogical aspect of her work. She is a permanent member of the teaching staff at hochstadt high school and the local middle and high schools – and will continue to be so. The religion teacher didn’t want to miss her work at the schools. "Both fields of activity can be combined well. I get to know the children and young people very well in my lessons. That helps me a lot in my community work", the hochstadterin reports from her experience so far.
For the solemn opening service, grater’s departures had come up with a number of ideas. Renate tallon from the deanery in bamberg, for example, is a long-time friend of the new neuhaus community pedagogue and reported on their joint professional experience in the form of an "instruction manual. Like a hybrid car, birgit grater is "all-purpose" and therefore nowadays a real "exclusive model". She also confessed that she was reluctant to give up 50 percent of a "super colleague" to be handed over. Religious forces are a real rarity in the meantime.
As the high point of the ceremony, the deputy dean, pastor karola schurrle, asked for god’s blessing for the new church employee and presented her with a symbolic vine. Grater was also welcomed by the church board, second mayor jutta kohler (SPD), the neuhauser trombone choir and the group oktave, which provided musical accompaniment for the service, as well as the entire church congregation at a reception afterwards at the old firehouse.