How the Christmas Candlelight Meeting Began
This is a story about the beginning of our Candlelight Service that was introduced to our meeting in 1989 by Barbara Bogue and Gary Koopmann and their children, Hannah and Eve. They attended Friends Meeting in Berlin, Germany and got to know a wonderful couple, Ilse and Gerhardt Schwersensky, who told them this touching story about learning how to share one’s light in the worst of times.
Berlin in 1945 was a devastated city, bombs had destroyed most of the homes and buildings and things were in terrible disarray – children without parents and homes, shortage of food and shelter – all of the terrible consequences that accompany war.
Ilse and Gerhardt were a Quaker couple with three small children who suffered terrible hardships during the war – she (a school teacher) because she defied the authorities ‘speaking to truth’ and Gerhardt because he had a Jewish father. They were homeless and spent many months searching for shelter for their family and while doing so, were willing to have other homeless orphans join them simply out of compassion, but with the knowledge that with each additional child, there would be less to share among their own family. They eventually found a bombed out building that gave them some shelter from the cold winter days and nights. The children slept in Army blankets in the Clothes that they wore during the day. Taking turns, Ilse and Gerhardt would search for food to feed the always-hungry children that grew daily in numbers. Once in returning with a load of bread, a hungry soldier asked for a piece. With reluctance, she shared the bread, only to find upon returning to the children that a Quaker care package had arrived with nuts, dried fruit and chocolates.
On Christmas Eve, Ilse and Gerhardt felt terribly sad about having so little to share with their extended family, but they were determined to make the Eve of Christmas a joyful event for themselves and their children. It was then when they and the Berliner Quaker Meeting conceived of the idea of a candlelight service as we now know it. By that time, the meeting had been assigned space in a mansion that had been confiscated during the war. Their large room had little furniture and, of course, no Christmas tree. However, nearby was a stand of fir trees and from these, they cut branches and carpeted the floor with green cuttings. They had a good supply of candles that they gave to each child. They began the meeting for worship with a single candle illuminating the darkness of night. One by one, after lighting the candle from each other, the children gave the best and only present that they could – they shared their talents that God had given them. One little girl had just learned to whistle and tried her best at ‘Joy to the World’. An older child had
composed a lovely poem thanking Ilse and Gerhardt for their compassion. Many shared memories of their own families, making everyone a bit sad and happy at the same time. As more children lit their candles, Ilse said the room was transformed into a carpet of light (licht teppich in German). After everyone shared their talents, they sang the wonderful Christmas songs that we still sing about God’s gift to us and the hope of Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward everyone. That sharing became a tradition in the Berlin Quaker Meeting that continues today. The Koopmanns experienced it while living in Berlin and also introduced it to the Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston, TX.
And that, dear friends, is the story behind our Christmas Worship service that has become a tradition among us and that we will now begin.