Berlin starts building of multi-faith worship centre
28-05-2021
Central Europe
CNE.news
photo Unsplash, Noah Holm
Central Europe
This week marks the beginning of a unique building project in Germany’s capital Berlin. Muslims, Jews and Christians laid the cornerstone of an interfaith worship service, housing a mosque, a synagogue and a church.
“The idea is pretty simple”, said Christian theologian Roland Stolte to the British daily The Guardian earlier this year. “We want to build a house of prayer and learning, where these three religions could co-exist while each retains their own identity.” Stolte helped start the project.
According to Swedish newspaper Dagen, the plans for this project have been there for about ten years. On Thursday, it was time to lay the cornerstone for this building, nicknamed the “churmosquagogue”.
The building, called “House of One”, will house a church, a mosque and a synagogue. A common space will connect these three different places of worship. Construction started on May 27th, and Berlin’s first churmosquagogue is expected to be completed in four years. To manage the financing, the German state, among others, has been involved.
Funding
According to Dagen, a similar project exists in the Swedish village of Fisksätra, 15 kilometres west of Stockholm. The project, named “House of God”, is already underway; there is a finished drawing of the building, which will house a church and a mosque, but there is insufficient funding to build the complex.
