Singing from the same hymn sheet
I hide myself at the back and hope that if I can just stand up and sit down at the right time, I’ll be fine. I don’t speak or understand a word of German but here I am at a Sunday afternoon church service…all in German! I recently found out that a church on the outskirts of Newcastle has a German speaking congregation and a regular mass, they had kindly agreed to meet with me for a chat over coffee and cake after the service. Being part of a church brings a great sense of community to some people already, and I was interested to hear what it meant to people to be able to worship in their mother tongue.
I go to church now and again with my husband and his grandmother so the flow and the rhythm of the words felt familiar. The words just didn’t land in the same way though, they didn’t mean anything. It struck me how hard it must be for someone who is religious to arrive in a new place and lose access to something that is so important to them. For something that normally speaks to their heart to suddenly lose all of its meaning and sound alien.
Some of the congregation are from Germany and here to meet and connect with like minded people (we all know that making friends as an adult is difficult!) For others they were raised bilingual and it’s a way of maintaining a connection to the German part of their identity and upbringing. There is a wonderful sense of collaboration and they don’t worry if someone falters over their words or hits a bum note when singing, they laugh it off together. It’s clear they are just happy to be here and to have the opportunity to worship in their chosen language.
From every single person I felt an immediate warmth and familiarity even though I’d never met them before. It made me think of the first time I walked into my Spanish conversation group – I was nervous but needn’t have been, I was welcomed with open arms and quickly felt at ease. Maybe it’s something that comes when a group of people have built a community from scratch – there is an openness, a willingness to welcome and include newcomers no matter what their background is. After all they were once newcomers themselves, they know how it feels.
More and more churches are offering services in different languages – a quick google of what’s on offer in Newcastle shows Ukrainian, Urdu, Greek among others. Hopefully it’s a trend that will continue, it means a lot atleast to the people I met today.
