Synodalists award Church Innovation prize to Tattoo Project from Austria

Church Innovation Award for Tattoo Project from Austria

Viennese religious centre "Quo Vadis" at "nevertheless. Conference for New Things in Church" in Hanover for "Free Tattoo Walk-In": Door opener for faith conversations

Tattoo event with Christian motifs: The Viennese meeting centre "Quo Vadis" has received an innovation award for its "Free Tattoo Walk-In". "Art, creativity and faith get under the skin - that's how the project inspired and convinced", the jury declared on Saturday evening at the "nevertheless. Conference for New Things in the Church" in Hanover, Germany. It had been a door opener for faith conversations with younger and older people. The innovation prize, which is not endowed, is awarded by the Bochum Centre for Applied Pastoral Research (zap).

As part of the tattoo initiative, people were able to get Christian motifs engraved in Vienna in April. According to the organisers, up to 700 people were interested in the action. The project was framed by a church service and a discussion about the controversial position of tattoos in Christianity. Quo Vadis" is a centre for encounter and vocation of Austria's religious orders in Vienna.

Four other projects were nominated: The "Kulturforum 21" from the Archdiocese of Hamburg mediates culture in schools and has so far involved around 15,000 children and young people in projects. The "Lüchtenhof" is an educational house of the Diocese of Hildesheim that wants to open up spaces for processes and change. The Citypastoral of the Diocese of Fulda has organised the installation "In the Here and Now" in the cathedral there. The "Villa Gründergeist" from the Diocese of Limburg brings together social entrepreneurs.

Large Austrian delegation

A large delegation from Austria also took part in the conference in Hanover. Groups from pastoral offices and church development from the dioceses of Graz-Seckau, Innsbruck, Gurk, Vienna and St. Pölten were there. A total of about 30 people were present, including Bishop Wilhelm Krautwaschl, the director of the Pastoral Institute Gabriele Eder-Cakl, pastoral office director Monika Botrager-Jury, Harald Fleissner, Elisabeth Schneider-Brandauer, Markus Beranek, the director of "Pastoral Innovation" Georg Plank and the director of the Canisiuswerk Elisabeth Grabner, as well as Christopher Campbell, director of the "Quo Vadis?" meeting centre in Vienna.

The conference in Hanover, with around 520 participants from all over Europe, had served "above all to inspire, to try things out and to exchange across diocesan borders", emphasised Pastoral Institute Director Eder-Cakl to Kathpress on Sunday. "It was always about taking away ideas and impulses for one's own pastoral work in the current society." One workshop was specifically about digital pastoral care on Instagram and TikTok. The focus was on "being able to take something concrete home with you". A living church inspired by the Gospel has "verve and also a portion of humour. This was noticeable at the conference," said Eder-Cakl.

The Centre for Applied Pastoral Research (zap) was founded in 2012 and is an interdisciplinary research centre at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the Ruhr University Bochum. It researches and promotes innovative pastoral care in German-speaking countries. The director is pastoral theologian Matthias Sellmann. The Innovation Prize was awarded for the third time.

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