The first pastorate is something like first love, unforgettable: Almost six years ago, Irmela Büttner took up her first pastorate in the Evangelical parish of Bieber – now, much earlier than expected, she is leaving and moving to the Laurentius parish in Achim im District of Verden.
Offenbach – “Achim is practically at the gates of Bremen,” says Büttner, “I will start my position there on September 1.” That she and her husband, both from northern Germany, will not stay in the Rhine-Main area forever would was agreed. “We didn’t expect it to happen so quickly – but several factors came together.” For example the corona pandemic, through which her husband was able to work from home and is no longer tied to one place. Then Büttner placed the tender for a pastorate on Wangerooge and both felt a longing for their old homeland in the north. “It didn’t turn out to be the island,” she says, but when a pastor with media experience was needed in Achim, she applied.
Büttner could have had a career in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN), and she seriously considered applying for the position of deputy dean in Wiesbaden. “But just hanging out in meetings and boardrooms isn’t something I’m ready for yet — I want to do community work.”
She did that in Bieber, for example by securing the joint youth work of the three southern evangelical congregations. “It’s just nice to see how the confirmands are now continuing in the youth work,” she says. The joint confirmation classes in Bieber, in the Mark, Luke and Matthew congregations are now a matter of course, and the position of congregational educator is firmly anchored.
Büttner is certain that the move to Achim to the Hanoverian state church will be noticeable, even if she is familiar with the North German state church. Noticeably less of the structure – the EKHN is considered to be liberal and very democratic, the Hannoversche is more Lutheran and hierarchical, as she says, but more from the perspective of the congregations. “In the north, large evangelical congregations are nothing special: when I tell them that I’m moving to a congregation with 8,000 members and three pastoral positions, there are astonished questions here,” she says and laughs.
The parish of Bieber has just 2,300 members, and Büttner was initially unfamiliar with the Catholic character of the district. “But I will definitely miss the ecumenical collaboration, which I really enjoyed here,” she explains. She is also sure that she will miss the OFC or Hessian dishes such as green sauce and apple wine. “And of course the people I dealt with here – I was really well received.”
A lasting memory has been created anyway: At Christmas 2018, ZDF broadcast a documentary about Büttner and her work in the community, making her and the Bieber community known nationwide. “I received a lot of positive feedback on the documentary from all over Germany,” she says. By the way, a successor for Büttner has been found: Georg Bloch-Jessen, currently vicar at the Friedenskirche, will be the new pastor in Bieber from September 1st.
She won’t miss the aircraft noise over Offenbach, but certainly Offenbach itself. “I’ll always say how great it is here.” Unfortunately, she would always encounter prejudices about the city. “Then I always say: ‘You don’t even know how nice it is in Offenbach'”
The farewell will be celebrated on Sunday, July 17 at 3 p.m. with a service in the Bieber Lutheran Church.
By Frank Sommer
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