Get to know Guest Pastor Iris Junge

Pastor Iris Junge will co-preach in English and German on Sunday August 7,2022 with our Pastor Annika Klappert. She will also preside at the German services on August 14 and September 4. She introduces herself to our congregation:

“Whom God wants to show the right favour, he sends into the wide world”

These words from a German folk song of the same name fit my situation very well because with great excitement, joy and gratitude I look forward to my journey “into the wide world”. At the end of July it starts. I will spend three months in Eastern and Western Canada to get to know German and Canadian churches. My first path leads me directly to your Martin Luther Church. But before we get to know each other, here’s a little taste of what’s to come.

My name is Iris Junge and I am a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran church of St. Marien Uelzen, a small town between Hamburg and Hanover. The congregation has around 3800 members, who live in the town as well as in the surrounding villages. I have been a pastor for more than 22 years and I still love it! I still appreciate the diverse tasks, the varied contacts and trusting encounters in joy and sorrow.

I grew up on a farm on the North Sea coast in a small village. After school and a year abroad in the German congregation in Oslo (Norway), I studied in Berlin and Heidelberg. After my time as a vicar – my theological education, I got an education as a broadcast editor. For four years I moderated church radio programs and produced radio reports and interviews. It was a very enriching time, especially for my subsequent work as a pastor.

I have four adult children and stepchildren, have become a grandmother twice – at the young age of 56 – and have been divorced for some time. The kids have moved out, so I have time for my hobbies again. I sing in a choir, like to ride my bike, have a large garden with work and joy, like to host friends and family and above all I like to travel.

I am happier still that I can travel to you and God shows me the favour of sending me “into the wide world”.

I look forward to meeting you.

God bless you!
Your Pastor Iris Junge