Worship services on bumper cars, weddings in the circus ring – for the new circus and showman pastor of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM), this is part of everyday life. The 43-year-old Klaus Zebe has been responsible for the traveling people in the region since Wednesday. He will be officially inaugurated with a service on March 31 at a folk festival in Erfurt.
Zebe already knows pastoral care and church services in special places from his previous work as a district youth pastor in Erfurt. The new office requires a little more flexibility. He visits circus employees, showmen, market traders and puppeteers at guest performances, at fairs and in their winter quarters in the area of the regional church. But the boundaries of the community when traveling cannot be precisely defined, as Zebe says. If he is asked in bereavement, for baptisms or weddings, he goes to the people – no matter where they are at the moment: “It’s mainly about relationship work, the territory doesn’t play that much of a role.”
According to the Evangelical Church in Germany, it has been looking after circus people and showmen for more than 60 years. Nationwide, about 23,000 members belong to the community, it is said. In Thuringia there has been a pastor for this group for around 13 years. Pastor Zebe succeeds Conrad Herold, who retired at the end of December. According to the church, Zebe is one of three pastors in Germany who take care of circus and showman families full-time – otherwise this is done on a voluntary basis.
A number of annual church services are already in the pastor’s calendar, who does not want to let these traditions come to an end – like on the eve of Erfurt’s “Old Town Spring”. In between, there is plenty of room for community members to introduce themselves. “I experience again and again how grateful people are when you take their ideas and wishes seriously and find ways together to pass on God’s blessing in a contemporary and personal way,” says Zebe. He enjoys “making something out of unusual situations together with people,” he says. A wedding at the lake to hip-hop music can be solemn and dignified.
“Hunters and circus people often have a different perspective on questions of faith and life, and I feel like going on a search with them,” says Zebe. Belief and membership in the Christian community are important to people, not being part of a local church. His most important concerns are therefore to maintain rituals and traditions, to pursue questions of faith – for example in joint services – and to establish leisure activities for children and young people.
Already as a teenager Klaus Zebe got a taste of circus air, learned to juggle and went with a group through Thuringian villages and small towns. Later he became involved in children’s and youth circuses. He managed a stand at the Erfurt Christmas market for several years. With his experience, he can at least put himself in the shoes of his parishioners, says Zebe. And he is toying with the idea of buying a caravan as a mobile office.
Circus and showman pastoral care
