HANOVER - Robbie Worship I - The Serendipity Mix

NOTE: Robbie Worship is such a significant blogging event that I feel the need to split it into two categories. This one is the Robbie Worship: The Serendipity Mix. If you came here looking for my random travel related insights and bizarre stories of German translation, this is the entry for you. If, however, you prefer your blog to be of the slightly more ecclesiastical nature (i.e. if you know what ecclesiastical means) then you might also/instead check out the below Robbie Worship: The Freaky Church Remix, which is slightly more ponderous and intellectual in nature. And which I heartily apologise for. But, then, there is nothing in the world quite like Robbie Worship.

The problem with going to any sort of conference in Germany is that many elements of said conference are probably going to be delivered in... well... German. When said language is your third or fourth of choice (depends how much Portuguese I feel I can remember on a particular day) it can get a wee bit depressing. After another hot day at the Kirchentag, Charity (former chaplaincy assistant partner in crime) and I were both well into that state. A half hour wandering around trying to find a Bavarian theme pub with a beer garden which didn't seem to exist wasn't helping, either.

Which is why, after finally settling on a pub, the innocuously titled "Ich will nur eehte Liebe - The Spiritual Yearnings of Robbie Williams' seemed like an appealing choice for Thursday evening entertainment. It might be kinda churchy. It might be kinda in German. But it felt like it might be a little piece of home. So after a gathering of our Fellowship of the English, a rushed meal (a story in itself. Thank goodness for the inability of Germans to take any kind of poor service and helpful waitresses) we headed off.

And this is where things get a little weird.

There was the Bristol contingent. Six of us including Simon the curate (minister for all you non-Anglicans out there), Rob the church warden, Charity and I who make our living working for the Church and PhD chasers Sarah and Lynn. And then there were the Germans: one of our wonderful hosts for the week, the aforementioned helpful waitress and her sister. (N.B. Note that British people do not go around the world indiscriminately picking up waitresses. Especially not British people who work for the Church. She was fascinated by our Englishness and the fact that we all seemed to be genuinely excited about going to church. I also think she has a thing for Robbie)

We arrived at Robbie Worship and, gotta say, things weren't looking good. The church was large and almost entirely empty. And the lecture was long and entirely German. We settled into the back pews and waited as someone came up to do the first reading in the normal church style. "Komm her und gib mir deine Hand, ich will das Leben beruhren..."

It was then that our friendly waitress, I'll call her darling Nicole, began translating. "Come and hold my hand, I wanna contact the living." Yes: Robbie lyrics were being read out. In church. In German. And in complete seriousness.


Robbie Worship: blessed art thou

I feel I must apologise to the organisers of Robbie Worship for the next hour or so. Where, whilst most sat reverently whilst Robbie lyrics were read out and sung, a small contingent in the back few rows giggled, waved and took lots of pictures. Perhaps they thought we were really connecting with the material. We were. Just differently to other people.

A few other things are worth mentioning about Robbie Worship:

1) The house band



... Black suits, colourful ties and German stoicism all in one. Franz Ferdinand meets Kraftwork (and bonus marks for the most excellent rendition of the guitar riff in Angels)

2) The Robbie host

Black and white suit. Trendy glasses. Eager and committed devotion to the Gospel of Robbie. Sadly he was apparently sighted elsewhere in the Kirchentag a day later. I'd have liked to have thought Robbie Worship was his sole purpose in being.

3) Guess the minister

My poor darling Nicole, not a church person and already freaked out by English people going to church for entertainment ("You don't go to church to laugh!"), translating a church service which confused her no end ("So now he's talking about Elton John. He's not in the Bible, is he?") then had to deal with the fact she was hanging out with a bunch of Christians, many of whom worked for the Church. And that one of them was a minister. She increased Simon's 'cool factor' by guessing wrongly. And then got up at an unearthly time of the morning a couple of days later to come to another service which freaked her out no end. Awww.

This, ladies and gentlemen, may have been the most random night I've ever had with a bunch of Church people and locals on the streets of Hanover. It was certainly one of the more enjoyable.