Breaking taboos: online portal tests churches in Switzerland

Zentralplus takes a closer look at ten churches in Central SwitzerlandPickles and diapers, concerts and croissants, sex toys or navigation apps. Almost every service and product is tested and evaluated. With one exception: religion. This at a time when the role of churches is increasingly the focus of a critical public.Centralplus is therefore venturing into the pews and testing ten Zug and Lucerne churches in a series. These include both Catholic and Reformed places of worship. The start was made by the Lucerne Hofkirche on November 19. Similar to a restaurant or football review, the experience and the performance of those involved are evaluated, and Lucerne church experts welcome the project. "Negative feedback, which might help you move forward, almost never comes or is very strong or hurtful," says Urban Schwegler from the Catholic Church of Lucerne. There has already been external feedback in the past. "But this was never publicly accessible and was only used for internal training." Franziska Loretan, lecturer in sermon teaching at the University of Lucerne, is also only aware of individual examples from years ago that were aimed at internal audiences, and even in the teams of parishes and church communities, there is often a lack of a culture of discussion about what makes a good service, a good sermon, explains Remo Wiegand, the author of the series, his commitment to Zentralplus. "There is a lack of language for it, for some it is almost a taboo." The 40-year-old studied Catholic theology, is a trained pastor and was a youth worker in Kriens and a pastoral assistant in Baar. Since 2006, he has been writing as a specialist journalist for numerous media, including Zentralplus, and the church service reviews appear every 14 days on Zentralplus, always on Sunday. Initially, church services in Lucerne and Zug will be tested. Points are awarded for criteria such as church interior, charisma of the priests, solemnity, sermon, music and integration factor.