We’d like to introduce you to a “sister community”, another expression of the Church whose spirit particularly resonates with our own. We’re delighted to introduce you to Lev Kollektiv, a Heidelberg-based community founded in 2024 by Methodist pastor Damaris Hecker. “Lev” is a Hebrew word that has been translated as “heart”, “courage” or the center of our intelligence and being.
We have more questions than answers, and we seek God not only in the Bible and in Jesus, but also in creation, in encounters with people, in music, in movement, in silence, in fire, in the wind, in the depths of our own hearts.
With Lev Kollektiv, we’ve gone in search of God in completely new ways, and we’re open and curious to try out the unknown together.
Maybe you don’t really fit into a church, you can’t do anything with traditional services and worship. But you miss the encounter with God, the exchange with others and a place to anchor yourself, to rest and recharge your batteries. Perhaps you’re looking for a safer space where you’re 100% welcome – whoever you are, whoever you love, wherever you are in your life’s journey.
We meet in Heidelberg on Sunday evenings at 5.30pm for our Lev evenings. At
the Old Neuenheim School in Heidelberg or around a campfire in the garden between Handschuhsheim and Dossenheim, we talk, eat together and share – experiences, stories, worries, but also food.
Our evenings at Lev :
Erika grew up in Kansas, USA. Trained in music at Prague and Emory University, she earned a Master of Divinity (Yale, 2007) and then a PhD in the history of Christianity (Boston, 2016). After serving in seven Methodist parishes in the United States, she was pastor of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Lausanne (2015-2022), before helping to create Village Mosaïque.
