In Bielefeld, the New Apostolic Church owns a historic church building in the Schildesche district dating from 1688, formerly a Roman Catholic church called Johanneskapelle. From 1950 onwards, the New Apostolic congregation of Schildesche used the building for its services until the congregation was dissolved in March 2025.
In recent months, a working group has developed a concept for how the building can be permanently preserved as a church and made available to various communities and user groups. The network was significantly involved in the planning with two networkers in the working group.
The district leader of the New Apostolic Church East Westphalia, Michael Block, has now written a letter that was read out in the New Apostolic congregations in the region on Sunday, August 10. It states:
“In order to do justice to the historical significance of the Old St. John’s Chapel and to enable the future use and maintenance of the building, the [New Apostolic] church district of East Westphalia-Lippe is keen to work with all interested parties to initiate a viable non-profit framework in which these plans can be implemented. This would allow weddings, funerals, and ecumenical services to continue to be held there, as well as concerts, readings, and lectures.
We therefore cordially invite both our church members and the interested public to an information event on September 2, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. at Westerfeldstraße 12 in Bielefeld-Schildesche to learn about the project and the opportunities for participation within the framework of a support association for the Old St. John’s Chapel.”
The network’s board supports the cause of ecumenically open preservation of this traditional church, whose roots date back to the 9th century. Some photos and a brief chronicle of the history in German can be downloaded from the NAK West-Zentralarchiv website:
https://www.nak-zentralarchiv.de/db/6769031/Gemeinden/Bielefeld-Schildesche
We are therefore following the information evening and the next steps with interest, and encourage all interested parties to get involved in this process.
