38th day - August 15: Batovce: Large church - Small community

The differences between rural and urban communities are, like here, quite large in Slovakia as well. Today's destination was the rural community in Batovce in southern Slovakia. Because the rural community is only 24km away from Kalna nad Hron, I decided to make a stop in the district town of Levice, which is directly on the way. The road led along a busy street. When I arrived, I was immediately surprised by the Evangelical church, which is only 20 years old. It is a modern and appealing new building in my opinion. The pastor was still on vacation, but I was given a guided tour by the church custodian. He said that the old church next door became too small for worship and the numerous community activities about 25 years ago, and with financial support from the Evangelical Church in Baden-Württemberg, a new Evangelical church was built. The completion was exactly 20 years ago.

The community has about 800 members. Before Corona, about 150, now 'only' 100 members attended the service. In the entrance area, various community activities are documented on a huge bulletin board. There is a separate children's worship room with a window overlooking the main worship hall for parents. After all, about 13% of the city's residents belong to the Evangelical community, significantly more than the national average of 6%. I found the youth room very appealing. An exhibition on the gallery presents the history of the Reformation in Slovakia. My detailed questions about current challenges may have been too complicated and I was referred to the pastor. But he is on vacation. After an hour, I continued cycling on the busy and very hilly country road to Batovce. As soon as I cycled downhill into the village, I saw two church towers. I assumed that the significantly smaller one belonged to the Evangelical church and the larger one belonged to the Catholic church. However, it was the other way around.

Ivan, the young pastor of the village, greeted me at the parsonage right next to the very large Evangelical church. We quickly got into a conversation and looked at the church. The size inside is very impressive and powerful. I learned that only about 260 members belong to this community and on Sundays, the around 20-30 worshipers get lost in the large Evangelical church with its approximately 650 seats. Many seats remained empty on Christmas Eve as well. He has been working in the community for only a year and hopes for better participation. Specifically, he wishes for a youth group, but motivating or even 'winning' young people from the village for the Evangelical church is very difficult in the village of around 1200 inhabitants. The lack of interest in the church is simply too great. The numbers of confirmations in recent years have also been quite manageable. He is still too new to the village to develop perspectives. While he was talking about the sometimes challenging community work, I noticed some parallels to our community work in the numerous villages of the Altmark region and told him a bit about my area. Even in his area with 3 preaching positions, the community members prefer to stay in their own village and rarely go to the neighboring church. As I lay in bed, I thought long about the similarities and differences.