A church in Germany’s capital, Berlin, has helped a nearby mosque comply with physical distancing guidelines by hosting Friday prayers, in a move hailed as “an amazing sign of solidarity”.<\/p>\n
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A church in Germany’s capital, Berlin, has helped a nearby mosque comply with physical distancing guidelines by hosting Friday prayers, in a move hailed as “an amazing sign of solidarity”.<\/p>\n
Places of worship reopened in the country earlier this month, but worshippers must maintain a minimum distance from one another of 1.5 metres (five feet).<\/p>\n
The Dar Assalam mosque in Berlin’s Neukoelln district, which sees hundreds of Muslims on Fridays, can only accommodate 50 people at a time under the guidelines issued to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
The nearby Martha Lutheran church stepped in to help, hosting Muslim prayers in Arabic and German.<\/p>\n
“These associations happen because of solidarity. The church saw how Muslims were suffering and asked us: ‘Do you need space to pray?’ That is an amazing sign of solidarity in these times,” said Mohamed Taha Sabry, the mosque’s imam.<\/p>\n
“This pandemic has made us a community. Crises bring people get together,” said the imam, who led his congregation in prayer watched over by a stained-glass window depicting the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n
The church’s pastor, Monika Matthias, said she had felt moved by the Muslim call to prayer.<\/p>\n
“I took part in the prayer,” she said. “I gave a speech in German. And during prayer, I could only say yes, yes, yes, because we have the same concerns and we want to learn from you. And it is beautiful to feel that way about each other.”<\/p>\n
The pastor said the partnership was a community decision “to do the best in times of coronavirus”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A church in Germany’s capital, Berlin, has helped a nearby mosque comply with physical distancing guidelines by hosting Friday prayers, in a move hailed as “an amazing sign of solidarity”. A church in Germany’s capital, Berlin, has helped a nearby mosque comply with physical distancing guidelines by hosting Friday prayers, in a move hailed as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n