Bricklayers and Finderup Kirke

What an interesting coincidence that we arrived at Finderup to find some bricklayers (or murers) working on the church building (doing some maintenance). The whole reason we were coming to this church was because there is a very good chance that my great-grandfather and his brother worked as murers on this very building. The church construction started the year my grandfather was born (as indicated by the 1908 painted on the pulpit), but was not completed until 1909, the year the Henriksens moved across the Atlantic (where they became the Hendricksens). Because the church was not finished at the time, Harry was baptised in the Hanning Kirke in the next closest village.

Because this church was newer it was missing some of the features of the other churches we looked at - gone was the triumphal arch, and the weapons room, the 3 foot thick walls and narrow windows. In the Hanning Kirke the original windows were left on the one side of the church, but after the reformation, when the parishioners would now need to read the hymns and liturgy, larger windows were put in on the south side of the church to let in more light. The Finderup church had larger windows all around.

On the back outside wall of the church there was some interesting brickwork, which formed a cross. I wondered if my great-grandfather or his brother shaped that expression of faith in their handiwork. Most buildings in Denmark are still made with bricks - even the new parsonage (more on that in another post) was brick throughout, even the interior walls. In North America we build things to last decades, in Denmark they are built to last centuries… we could learn something from them.

So now I had seen the church where my grandfather was baptised, and the church that quite likely my great-grandfather helped build - that was all I had hoped to see, but it seemed like Pastor Jens had more to show us, and he said “I have arranged lunch for you.” This was turning out to be more than expected, much to the gracious and generous hosting by Pastor Jens Holmgaard.