600-Year-Old German Church Puts On Emotional And Tear-Jerking Taylor Swift Worship Service

The following report is by DW (excerpts):

Staged under the name, “Anti-Hero — Taylor Swift Church Service,” organizers at the Protestant church said the event was conceived to attract younger people, as well as to focus on the profound religious convictions expressed in many of Swift’s songs.

“The Church of the Holy Spirit has always been a place of encounter and exchange. That’s why a pop-music religious service fits so perfectly,” said Heidelberg Pastor Christof Ellsiepen. “With it, we are giving space to the questions and issues that occupy the younger generation.”

Parish Pastor Vincenzo Petracca quoted numerous lyrics and traced Swift’s biography, emphasizing her attachment to and understanding of Christianity in everyday life.

Petracca acknowledged that Swift’s songs are open to numerous interpretations but highlighted the strong Christian — and political — messages she integrates into her songs, which address the subjects of women’s rights, racism and gender equality, among others.

“Theologically speaking, she points to the justness of God,” says Petracca, adding, “For her, faith and action are inseparable.”

Throughout both Sunday services — two were staged in order to accommodate the large number of people who attended — the congregation, which was notably younger and and more female than is often the case, were treated to live performances of six Swift songs.

These were performed by Tine Weichmann — a singer from Hamburg and now a professor of popular church music in Heidelberg — and her band. Behind them, a rainbow-colored sign reading, “Everybody is welcome!”

One of the most emotionally stirring moments of the service came when Weichmann and her band performed, “Soon You’ll Get Better.” Swift wrote the song for her mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer…