ELBJAZZ Jazzgottesdienst

Sunday, 11 June 2023

15:00–16:00

Hauptkirche St. Katharinen

Across the great divide

Piano meets organ in the 2023 ELBJAZZ Mass Service in St. Katharinen

Jazz is a master of tension. It unites opposites without dissolving them, and sides with life through its yearning-imbued fragility. Jazz gets our hearts beating faster on the off-beat, which trips, hums, dances, hovers, and gives us wings so that we can overcome the great divide that separates us: from each other, from ourselves, from our ability to be amazed bylife on this blue planet and the expanses of the universe, and thereby from the reason in our heads and hearts, common sense, and indeed from our humanity, from God, provided we still expect him. Bringing the festival to a close, the ELBJAZZ mass service in St. Katharinenpresents Ulrike Haage (piano) and Daniel Stickan (organ). The two great keyboard instruments enter into a dialogue: in the mass service, at a time of war in Europe, concern about the planet, bewilderment in view of the great divide between the situation we’re in and how we’re responding. The Jazz Mass Service aims to counteract this: with music and humour, literature and prayer, doubt and the confidence that a belief in miracles always expresses more truth about the world than any empirically founded resignation.

Liturgy and sermon: Pastor Frank Engelbrecht

Jazz: Ulrike Haage – piano, Daniel Stickan, organ

Readings: Marion Gretchen Schmitz

Sound, technology, film: Martin Kramer, Horst Pöhlmann