rEVOLution – the world is not too big?
The "Night of the Shrine" (NdH), the faith festival of the Schoenstatt Youth, has taken place in defiance of Covid19, even in 2020. Only a little bit different than in previous years, when normally up to 500 youth met in Schoenstatt, Vallendar, around the Original Shrine at the founding place of the Schoenstatt Movement for encounter, inspiration, strengthening in faith, friendship and much more.
The former kitchen in the Covenant House in Schoenstatt, Vallendar, is not recognizable. Spotlights system, loudspeakers and stage decoration. In between are furniture and a large live monitor. Several cameras stand on tripods and a lot of cables reach the control desks, where computers, mixing desks and large control monitors are placed for sound, light, video editing and live transmission to the Internet. There is also an editorial workstation where the feedback of the participants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is collected via social media channels and brought into the live event.
In 2020, the first “Night of the Shrine” took place on the first weekend of September, digitally via live streams, where everyone could join, not only at home in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also at some regional Schoenstatt Centers. On site in Schoenstatt, many contributions were produced during and before the Week of Service. In preparation for the event, there were digital sessions three times a week since August 18th, a podcast and workshops on the topic and “Impulses for Sunday”.
Musical contributions were pre-produced in high quality
The central, offered digital events that took place on September 5th. A six-person technical team, which under the given circumstances had a special responsibility, was in charge of the interaction between live production and pre-produced contributions. In the opening event, moderators Kerstin Eichenlaub and Alexander Steiger presented several aspects of the topic “rEVOLution – the world is not too big?
The contents of previously broadcast podcasts with Elisabeth Hanke (ROCK YOUR LIFE!
Project), Michael Rosenberger (RELIGIONS FOR FUTURE project) and Carsten Leinhäuser (“Faith can bring change”) will be featured.
Sustainable changes take time
In the motto talk, the second point on the program, the moderator Alexander Bersch discussed the motto with his two guests Philipp Wittershagen, co-initiator of “Schoenstatt for future”, and the child and adolescent psychotherapist Verena Groß. For young people today, being revolutionary means having an eye for grievances, demanding authenticity and having the courage to open your mouth. Precisely because profound and sustainable changes take time and concrete steps do not always show immediate success, each individual contribution is important. This can be learned from children’s developmental psychology as well as from ecological projects.
“With God there is no social distancing”
The highlight of the Night of the Shrine, the nightly celebration of the Covenant of Love, was preceded by an almost one-hour fun trip through Germany, during which the two moderators visited places in the (arch) dioceses of Fulda, Augsburg, Freiburg, Trier, Rottenburg-Stuttgart and Regensburg Local NdH live meetings took place in the evening.
The experience of the Covenant of Love celebration was impressive. The live program as well as the recorded contributions created an atmosphere of connection with one another and with God: “With God there is no social distancing”.
Those who were celebrating on the screen were taken along on the path of renewing the Covenant of Love for the youth of the world and for adoration of the Eucharistic Lord through good and meaningful texts, excellently produced song contributions, speaking testimonies and simple symbolic actions. And of course, everyone was invited to write their Covenant of Love letter and send it to the jar in the Original Shrine.
“Revolution out of love, change begins from the heart. Have the courage, you can dare to carry God’s message into the world. ”These sentences from the motto song not only resonate as catchy tunes, but will make the digital night of the sanctuary 2020 noticeably sustainable in everyday life.