The Church in Germany

Think of a town in the Mid-west. When you ask their religious affiliation, their response will either be Lutheran or Catholic. Same thing goes for Germany: Evangelische or Katholische. The only thing is that Evangelische looks very little like the Lutheran church I know in the states. If my German history is correct, a while back some king brought all the protestant denominations together and they became a hybrid of the reform church from switzerland and Lutheranism. They held to the Lutheran teachings, but catered to the Reformists by eliminating any decorum that would be reminiscent of Catholicism.
With that in mind, the Catholic church has clearly been influenced by such cultural standards. The Cathedral, where I went to mass today, was very stark. Not what I expected from a European Cathedral. The music was very intellectual. The organ is clearly central to German worship, and I think it's great. So much counterpoint. Though the counter point today was more in the style of Schoenberg than Bach, but such unsettling tones were fitting for Lent. They also had a children's chorus visiting and singing for mass. Very good little singers! Homilies can always feel long, though they are even longer when they are in German. The one thing that was very Lutheran and not so much Catholic was in place of saying the Creed we sang a hymn. Also, we sang the magnificat after communion.
My morning was with the Katholische and my evening was with the Evangelische. The JSB Ensemble sang in an evening vespers. Once again there was a sermon, and once again I realized how little German I actually know. We performed Cantata 29, because the first chorus is used throughout the B-Minor Mass. The whole church also sang a hymn and each verse came at a different time during the sermon. I lip sang through that, I've pretty much lost my voice. Nothing was coming out during mass in the morning. Kathy, our chorus master, directed the Vespers, but we could see Helmuth and Martina up in the balcony. Kathy got rather emotional, because we were singing in the church where she directed the choir 35 years ago when she was a very young musician. Here is a link to pictures from the Musikalische Vespers
For the remainder of the evening I have done my best to not talk. We went to dinner, but at least it was an empty restaurant, so nobody to talk over. My one frustration is that water is not free at restaurants. No wonder everyone orders a beer at every meal. You get three times the amount of the water glass for only 2 more euros. I learned that beer is a food group.