Germany

It is a town of around 20,000 residents and has lots of reminders that it was settled in the 13th century. There isn’t much industry and many young people leave Salzwedel to go to the bigger cities of Germany for employment.

St Catherine’s is in the Stendahl-Magdeburg are of the EKM. It is a beautiful church that is used for worship as well as concerts and other events. It is led by Pastor Matthias Friske.

We visited the parish during the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation in June 2017. This was the start of building friendships and we spent our time worshipping, eating and sightseeing together. We also attended a gathering of many other links in Magdeburg which took place at the same time as the Kirchentag. We welcomed our friends back to Pershore in October. They visited all of our churches, Pershore College and attended lots of harvest celebrations that are happening at the same time.

In June 2019, we visited again and in the summer of 2023, they visited us. As these exchanges continue to take place we hope to learn more about one another, our cultural and religious traditions, to visit local schools and to continue to develop our friendships.