Farewell to Cathedral Preacher Petra Zimmermann
Petra Zimmermann was a cathedral preacher at the Berlin Cathedral for 17 years! On September 17, 2023, we will say goodbye to her in retirement during a festive service. Cathedral preacher Stefan Scholpp, Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber, the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir, the Girls' Choir of the Singakademie zu Berlin under the direction of Kai-Uwe Jirka and Friederike Stahmer, and cathedral organist Andreas Sieling will frame and accompany Petra Zimmermann's farewell sermon.
The dedicated theologian had been working at the Berlin Cathedral since 2006. She has shaped this time in many ways. With her thoughtful and at the same time gripping sermons, the loving warmth of her affection, her clear and eloquent positions, her love of art and her weakness for the weak, she will remain in the impressive memory of all who experienced her. Petra Zimmermann stood up for a strong togetherness and against any form of exclusion; be it anti-Semitism or anti-gypsyism. She was also instrumental in expanding the partnership with the Polish parish of St. Trinitatis in Warsaw.
"I look back with gratitude: to conversations and encounters, to paths walked together, to church services and concerts in which I felt I could sense something of God's presence," Petra Zimmermann sums up her 17 years at the Berlin Cathedral.
For the future, her wish is "that the Berlin Cathedral continues to be in dialogue with representatives of religions, art and culture, politics and civil society. We do not find the answers to the challenges of our time by dealing with ourselves. In a free society, many people have their say, and different answers come together. The answers we give as Christians must be spoken into this dialogue with others."
September 17, 2023, 10 a.m.
Festive service to bid farewell to Cathedral Preacher Petra Zimmermann.
Sermon: Cathedral Preacher Dr. Petra Zimmermann
Liturgy: Cathedral Preacher Stefan Scholpp, Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber
Choir: Staats- und Domchor Berlin, Girls' Choir of the Singakademie zu Berlin
Conductors: Prof. Kai-Uwe Jirka, Prof. Friederike Stahmer
Organ: Cathedral organist Prof. Dr. Andreas Sieling