Sunday, 1. March: It is the beginning of lent. Bright bell sound rings in the Sunday worship service in Bonstetten, a small village in the Säuliamt. A Beamer projects the page numbers for the hymns on the wall next to the Altar. Someone forget to move the mouse pointer away from it all: For a short time, the Windows startup screen of the wall lights. Movement in the sacristy. Then the Computer wakes up from sleep mode, and the page numbers are back.
Behind the modern facade of the 2016 newly built Church of the old Catholic’s Tradition: the pastor and the acolytes pull in liturgical robe from the sacristy, in the first song, the Church visitors have to dig out your best Latin. A normal Church. This small white piece of paper stuck to each concrete column would not be there. Only a Twint-Code and the word “collection are shown”.
Digital pioneers in the Canton of
With these little white slips of paper the Bonstetter sneak up carefully to the digitization . For several months, the faithful can donate here with your phone money to charity, instead of throwing coins and Bills in the good old bell bag. Bonstetten is the first parish in Canton, who tried a digital collection.
Whether it’s digital or analog, the revenue of the Sunday collection went to the Children’s aid Foundation, magic lamp.
The Sunday service is well attended, pastor Antonio Lee sermon the temptation of Jesus by the devil in the desert. The average age is around 40. At the Church of the output, the faithful may choose according to the fair: Either the Code on the wall or scanning the smiling 11-year-old acolytes Jesse count a few coins into the alms-bag throw.
The decision is difficult for most. Only a single Twint-payment is. “I often see donations of anyone with the mobile phone,” says Jesse count, with a glance at the lonely piece of paper, white wall, before he disappears with his full, bat the bast basket in the sacristy. Man: 1 Machine: 0.
Cash-free future
so Why a proven System to change? “Here at us the people ranzuführen slowly, but now is the right time,” says Sebastian Mundo, President of the congregation. He sees the success of contactless payment in the (Northern European) horizon appear. There, in Scandinavia, carrying around more and more people are getting less cash. Whether in the supermarket or at the bakery – you can pay contactless, card or mobile phone. Even beggars have adapted to and wear signs around the neck, where QR-Codes are mapped, via the passers-by digital charity can give.
The idea, even in the small Bonstetten early jump on the band wagon, came from the family of the Church aktuarin Monika Landis. Her husband Beat has equipped 2019 already the club Limmat swim with a Twint account. In the Shop you can pay cashless. There, some users, told to Beat Landis. It is a practical Alternative for all, who would not have the appropriate cash in the bag.
Cheap test-run
For the Church, the effort is minimal, the establishment of the Bonstetter Twint-collection went in the blink of an eye. The donation process lasts for the faithful few seconds and is anonymous. Ongoing costs there is not, however, a percentage of the donation as a fee to Twint . The working time for the Church staff, they normally bring coins to the Bank and on the Church account to pay up. For Bonstetten the collection alternative, then, is a relatively safe Experiment.
The Church of St. Mauritius in Bonstetten, it was built in 2016.
However, practically all of the sounds, so many skeptics there are. One of them is: pastor Antonio Lee. “Personally, I have not expected a big success,” he says. In 1976 in South Korea-born spiritual has witnessed the digital Revolution first-hand. His home country is eating the Internet-verse, but Lee, despite his young age, a relatively old-fashioned man.
No App can replace human contact. The approaches to the modern media age are more likely to be cosmetically: a few pieces of paper with Twint Codes hanging or beautiful pictures of the Church work for the 36 subscribers to the new churches-Instagram-Accounts items.
No digital Church
A border crossing for pastor Lee changes if they affect the contact between people. Pastoral care, worship, or funerals were aspects of his work, only worked from person to person. “The human body and soul. We need contact, physical contact,” says Lee. A digitization of the Catholic Church, or even a Online service will not give it in Bonstetten. “Such a future, I think, is terrible, to be honest.”
You realize, the digital collection in Bonstetten is not a Revolution. On the first day, six payment came via Twint intake, there are now about two per week. Whether these Numbers increase again in the future and if other churches follow suit in the Canton, which now depends on the future of cash. And the future of the Catholic Church.
Created: 06.03.2020, 14:53 PM
