Pastor clarifies:

“Waiting in church is no longer enough”

Marcus Hütter is a pastor at the Heilandskirche in Graz and also takes part in "public foot washing".(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

The young Protestant pastor Marcus Hütter wants to take the Christian message out to the people. Is this the future of churches?

What the young Protestant pastor Marcus Hütter organized on Maundy Thursday with colleagues (including from the Catholic, Old Catholic and New Apostolic churches) is seen by many as a sheer provocation: public foot washing - in Herrengasse in Graz, among other places. "Of course we want to attract attention with this campaign - but it's primarily about talking to people about things that move them - and about God and faith if they want to."

It is precisely these conversations that are becoming increasingly rare in society. The number of Styrians who describe themselves as "believers" has been falling for years. Even on high holidays, such as Easter, fewer and fewer people find their way to church: "The times when you could wait for people in church as a priest because they came anyway are over," Hütter is also certain.

Marcus Hütter in the courtyard of Graz's Heilandskirche.(Bild: Christoph Hartner)

 "Science can't answer everything"
Society has become secularized, people are searching individually for meaning in life. The many crises and scandals in the churches have contributed to people turning away from the church. This makes it all the more important for Hütter to go out with the Christian message: In addition to public foot-washing ceremonies, he and his colleagues also organize pop-up church services, for example. "When you come into contact and talk to people, you realize that many are looking for answers that, in my opinion, only faith can provide." It's about questions like: Where do I come from? What is the purpose of my life? What happens when it comes to an end? "Science can answer many things, but not everything. And it is precisely here, with the big questions of life, that the appeal of faith begins for me.

He himself was not born with faith and the vocation to work as a pastor: "My father is Protestant, my mother Catholic, but when I was little we didn't go to church very often," he recalls. As a child, the Mödling native lived in Brazil for six years, where his parents worked as teachers: "It was an exciting time, but when we came back, I was a bit lost," he says. That was exactly when his confirmation classes began: "And it just clicked. I found a community and spiritual stimulation, but also stability."

"The affirmation of life gave me strength"
What was and is the attraction of faith for him? "The feeling that I am wanted and loved by God. This affirmation of life gave me strength." And it ultimately also gave him the impetus to become a pastor and religious teacher: "Originally, I wanted to study medicine and help people that way. But things turned out differently - luckily."

His credo as a pastor: be authentic. "I can only preach what I live myself," he says. "Anything else would be hypocritical." The reward of the job: "I have so many intense, honest and enriching encounters with people - especially when it comes to pastoral care or funerals. Being able to be a support here is challenging, but gives me the feeling of having a meaningful task."

Birth of this "crazy idea"
And that also sustains him through stressful times: "In my everyday life, Easter is above all a dense and busy time - but I do it out of conviction." For Hütter, Easter and Christmas are "the birth of the Christian faith and this crazy idea that God becomes one of us and says: no matter how low you fall, no matter how bad you feel - I was there and I am the hope that there is redemption."