The latest addition to the Copenhagen skyline is a tall, 12-sided wooden building proudly bearing the sign "Denmark's First Tiny Church." The 818-square-foot construction was unveiled Sunday in the Nordhavn—"North Harbor"—district on the outskirts of Copenhagen, reports the AP. After months of construction, it's now an outpost of the local Evangelical-Lutheran Hans Egedes Church. The parish's leaders saw a need for extra spiritual space as the Danish capital is expected to grow by 20% over the next decade.
"At the old days, you build a church, and the church will make a community, and then you build the city. Today, it's the opposite," project manager Johanne Dal-Lewkovitch said. "You build the city, and then there's a need for a church. So it's a little bit strange." In Denmark, a nation of 6 million, more than 70% of the population are registered members of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, but few Danes go to church on a regular basis. In fact, many go just once a year, on Christmas Eve. But this tiny church is expected to be popular for weddings, baptisms, funerals, and other intimate services because of its cozy interior. Only 40 to 50 people can fit inside its 12 walls—one wall for each apostle—beneath a skylight.
Sunday's opening featured an outdoor church service, choral concert, and communal dining. "It's one of the first in maybe a new modern church world, you can say," parish priest Christian Bro said. The "Tiny Church" concept was first seen in Amsterdam suburb Almere Poort, where Dutch church leaders saw the need for a new location where believers could meet, talk, and worship.
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Echoing early Viking churches once seen across this Scandinavian nation, the new church is built almost entirely from wood. It's insulated with newspapers, and the interior has been painted white to match the matte white rock surfaces seen in more traditional Danish churches. While its home is in Nordhavn for now, its metal stilts mean that it can easily be "put it up some other place where there's another need in another parish, maybe in Denmark," Dal-Lewkovitch said.
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