2023-07-06 05:00:00
A hundred people filled the Protestant temple on rue Laoureux this Sunday followingnoon, July 2. People from various backgrounds: Hodimont and Spa, mainly, but also from the Verviers Catholic community, with in particular the dean, Stanis Kanda, and the parish priest of Dison, Bernard Pönsgen. All were gathered to say goodbye to Pastor Heike Sonnen, surrounded by her family. After almost 11 years spent in Verviers, where she celebrated for the first time on November 11, 2012, and evoked in an audiovisual montage, she is preparing to teach the Protestant religion at the athénée and at the French-speaking primary school of Eupen.
Looking for a pastor
Heike Sonnen is not quite gone yet: she will still officiate in July, before the August holidays, when the temple will be closed, the Verviers Protestant community being able to meet in Hodimont. But then, the Laoureux temple will be without a holder, until a new pastor or a new pastor is unearthed.
Time of uncertainty? The pastor had chosen the gospel of the paralytic to whom Christ said “Get up and walk !”. Both a reference to his ordination in Brussels in 2006 and an invitation to trust.
Heike Sonnen also returned to her career in Verviers, a career that she placed under the sign of “humility”: before “the journey of others” ; before “the elusive side of life” ; before “this world where Peace and Justice appear as sometimes insurmountable objectives” and in front “this Universe, where one wonders what God wants for Man”.
“A hole”
The actual celebration over, it was (obviously) time for the tributes. “Ten years have passed very quickly. They have been filled with important events, which you have faced with competence and commitment”, recalled a representative of the Consistory. In particular the Covid epidemic, or the catastrophic floods of 2021, where, recalled a disaster victim, Heike Sonnen “came herself to remove the mud from my house”. a pastor “always optimistic in the face of change”concluded the speaker.
A representative of the Spa community, for whom Heike Sonnen was also responsible, spoke with an acrostic: “H, for humble; E, for ecological; I, for intelligent, K for myriad ideas and words, and E for teacher”. A song “Goodbye, Madam Pastor”to the tune of Farewell Professor, of Hugues Aufray, completed the remarks.
The qualities of “dialogue”of “collaboration” of the (next) starter, in particular with the Verviers Catholic community, but also “welcome” et “d’engagement” have also been highlighted.
And if a festive reception concluded the ceremony, a speaker has, in fine, underline “the void” that Heike Sonnen will leave in Verviers. A void that will not be easy to fill.
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