Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one. I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking. This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.
Germany has a remarkable World Cup record - and also a vast array of remarkable churches. I've visited a few and even spoken in one, but I've decided to go for a church that I have never visited. Nevertheless, given the opportunity this is a church I would definitely go to see - Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
It may look like any other Germanic city church, but the story of this church is without equal. It was a church where Martin Luther visited often and preached - this (with many counterparts in the German states) linked to the Reformation, the foundation of Protestantism which revolutionised Europe both ecclesiastically and politically. It became, therefore, Lutheran - the Reformation in Saxony proclaimed in this church by Luther himself in 1539.
Forward about 175 years and a new cantor arrived. His name? Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach's influence on music was and is as profound as Luther's on religion and politics. It is calculated that it would take decades to physically write down the works of Bach, yet he not only wrote the scores, he composed them. Weekly a cantata for St Thomas's, larger works for feasts and festivals, other works for the three sister churches, and utterly amazing general music besides. Oh, and he had 20 children . . .
As if this church did not have enough in being at the heart of two great revolutions, Richard Wagner was baptised here, and both Mozart and Mendelssohn played the organ as visiting musicians. Sme churches have history, but this is on another level!
