Frauenkirche Dresden celebrates 20 years of Anglican ministry
‘On Sunday 21 June 2026, the monthly English-language Anglican service of Evening Prayer celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Anglican services at the Frauenkirche. The first such service was held on Sunday 18 June 2006, some eight months after the consecration of the re-built Frauenkirche on 30 October 2005.
Frauenkirche Dresden
From its inception, until the end of 2015, the service was overseen by the late Revd Dr Irene Ahrens, Assistant Priest of St George’s Church Berlin. Ricky Yates, Coordinator of English-language Anglican worship in Dresden, took over responsibility at the beginning of January 2016. There are two reasons why back in 2006, the Church of England in Germany was offered this monthly English-language Anglican service by the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), and more specifically by the Frauenkirche. One is the ecumenical Meissen agreement, the second significant reason are the strong links between the Frauenkirche and Coventry Cathedral through their shared experience of wartime destruction and their shared commitment to work for peace and reconciliation. Ricky Yates, originating from Coventry, concluded his sermon that was centred on the Cross of Christ, by giving thanks for those who had the vision for this regular English-language Anglican service to happen each month.
Maria Noth, the Geschäftsführerin/CEO of the Stiftung, the charitable foundation that run the Frauenkirche, said in her speech: ‘Every Anglican service celebrated in this church bears witness to a simple but demanding truth: that community can grow where history once produced division, and trust where suspicion may seem inevitable. They remind us that reconciliation is not first and foremost our achievement, but a gift; and a responsibility. We live by the grace of the One who reconciles the world to himself and calls us to become servants of reconciliation.’
The above is shared by kind permission from Ricky Yates’s blog. Read the full story here.