Rainbow banner © Agnieszka Lobodzinska (shutterstock)
A Catholic parish is literally flying the flag for queer people. An eight-meter rainbow flag, the symbol for homosexual and other non-heterosexual oriented people, hangs from the tower of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Munster.
"It was important to us as a congregation that the queer people who live in Munster and the surrounding area can also be at home with us in the church," Pastor Hubertus Krampe told the online portal kirche-und-leben on Tuesday.de. "We must think much bigger of God – then we can also think bigger of man."
According to Krampe, the queer community of Munster is at home in the parish of St. Joseph Munster-Sud, to which the Holy Spirit Church belongs. In St. Anthony's Church, which is also affiliated with the parish, the Catholic and ecumenical congregation always celebrates on the 2nd Sunday of each month. Sunday
in the month service. The occasion for raising the flag, he said, is Christopher Street Day on 30. August and the "Prideweek" that precedes it. "And that's where the church is ecumenically on board," the clergyman said
He pointed out that the rainbow has a threefold meaning: On the one hand, it is "a sign of the unbreakable loyalty of the federation
God, which is valid for all people – regardless of age, form of life, biological or social gender, culture, etc…"In addition, he is a symbol of the LGBTIQ community (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, intersex and queer people) in their colorful diversity. And thirdly, the sign on the church tower means that the Catholic Church is also showing its colours.
"We are consciously taking this path of openness, which is expressly supported by the parish council," said Krampe. Already at the 2018 Katholikentag in Munster, the Holy Spirit parish hosted the Rainbow Center for queer guests at the gathering, he said. "We are proud of that – that was a wonderful experience," the pastor said. On Christopher Street Day, he said, there will be 18.00 o'clock on the church square give a service. "And yet I would like to see a church so open that such services would no longer be necessary for certain groups in our community," Krampe emphasized.