On Monday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m., the “Westend Gospel Singers,” a choir from a UCC sister congregation in Germany, will perform gospel music in concert at St. Stephens UCC in Merrill. The music is sung in English and directed by Pastor Hanns Peter-Giering. Members of the local St. Stephens Church choir will join them in singing some selections. A freewill offering will be taken.
The 30-voice Westend Gospel Singers is an outreach ministry of the congregation in Eberswalde, a city of 40,000, located northeast of Berlin in former East Germany. They are part of an on-going choir exchange. They first came to Wisconsin in 2006 and our “Gospellers” Choir visited Germany in 2008.
In recent years Gospel choirs have sprung up across northern Europe from Austria to Estonia. Eberswalde has become a leader of this movement in their region of Berlin-Brandenburg. In each of the past ten years it has hosted a gathering and this September welcome 300 singers for workshops and song.
The public is invited to attend.