Pielisensuu Church

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Pielisensuu Church
62°35'36"N, 29°46'54"E
Location Kirkkokatu 28,
80100 Joensuu, Finland
Country  Finland
Denomination Lutheranism
History
Founded 1960
Architecture
Functional status Active
Architect(s) Veikko Larkas
Style Modern
Completed 1960
Specifications
Capacity 550 congregants
Height 36 m
Administration
Diocese Diocese of Kuopio
Synod Jaana Marjanen, Oiva Malik, Pauliina Kainulainen
Clergy
Archbishop Kari Mäkinen
Bishop(s) Wille Riekkinen
Dean Ilpo Kari Ranta
Vicar(s) Mika Riikonen
Deacon(s) Anne Dahlgren
Laity
Director of music Sakari Vilpponen, Juha Pesonen
Chapter clerk Matti Ketonen, MD

Pielisensuu Church is the main church for the Lutheran parish of the same name. The church stands 105 metres above sea level on a hill in the Niinivaara neighbourhood of Joensuu, Finland.

Pielisenssu Parish forms a part of the parish union of Kuopio. It is one of six Joensuu-area parishes of the deanery supervised by Ilpo Kari Ranta; and is one of 60 parishes administered by the Bishop of Kuopio, currently Wille Riekkinen.[1]

Building

The building was designed by architect Veikko Larkas (1909-1969), who also designed churches in Enontekiö, Kauhajoki and elsewhere. Construction of Pielisensuu Church was completed in 1960. The church is built in so-called tent style: a steeply-roofed, rectangular building of brick and concrete that stands 36 metres tall, with a small bell tower at the top.

The church sanctuary can accommodate 550 people, with 75 people in the organ gallery. A retractable folding door separates the main part of the church from a smaller parish hall, which can hold 150 people. The church also has club rooms, workers' housing and other facilities.

The church bells were removed from a church in Pälkjärvi, a Finnish-speaking part of Karelia which the Soviet Union had annexed in 1944. Pielisensuu Church was renovated in 1999, and work to expand the building began in autumn 2007. The new premises provide office space for church employees and more space for children and youth activities.

Church decor

Artisan weaver and art instructor Dora Jung (1906-1980), a textile artist who specialized in linen and damask, designed the original altar cloths, which were woven by master weaver Marita Mattsson. The altarpiece features a cross and a mosaic wall.[2]

Sculptor Eva Ryynänen carved the church pulpit. For the church's 20-year anniversary in 1980, artist Kaisa Mäkelä designed new altar cloths and clerical garb, including a red altar frontal featuring the 12 apostles.[3]

Sister churches

Pielisensuu Church has formal links with three sister Lutheran churches — in Mäntsälä, Finland, since 1978; in Tata, Hungary, since the 1980s; and in Schwarzenbach an der Saale in Germany, since 2005.

A charter tour group from Mäntsälä visited in 2006, a Pielisensuu group was hosted by Mäntsälä the following year, and the two churches held a joint autumn tour of Kilpisjärvi in 2008.[4]

Similarly, a group of Hungarian pastors, led by Tata vicar Istvan Nagy, visited Finnish churches in Iisalmi in the company of Finnish pastors Samuli Ranta and Matti Sihvonen, the latter of whom was later to become a bishop.[5]

The cooperation with the Bavarian town grew out of an earlier partnership between the YMCAs of Schwarzenbach and Joensuu as well as the friendship of verger Leo Piipponen with Günther Seuss. More than 30 members of a Pielisensuu youth group spent five days in Schwarzenbach in 1998; a school music class from Finland went there again in 2004.[6]

Other views of Pielisensuu Church
View from the west of Pielisensuu Church shows the steeply pyramidal church tower on the left, and roof line sloping inwards to the left over the parish hall and offices at the picture's right.
Westerly view of Pielisensuu Church. 
A southern view of the rear entrance to the church. In the foreground is playground equipment, a grass lawn and some trees.
View from Water Tower park to the south. 
Sister Evangelical Lutheran churches in Finland and Germany
Traditional four-square brick church. In the foreground, attached to the church, is a three-storey brick steeple with Romanesque windows and a weathered copper spire is set on grassy area amid trees.
Sister church in Mäntsälä, Finland. 
Side view of a white limestone church with two ranks of five tall, slightly arched, rectangular windows and a 45-degree slate roof. To the left is a four-storey limestone clock tower with small windows topped with a clock face and a tall sharply pointed hexagonal central spire. Around the large spire are four smaller spires.
Church in Schwarzenbach, Germany. 

Notes

  1. ↑ Piispa Henkilö (Bishop's résumé), Kuopian Hippakunta. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
  2. ↑ Pirkko Timonen, Dora Jung: Tekstiilitaiteilija, taidekäsityöläinen, teollinen muotoilija ("Dora Jung: Textile artist, artisan, industrial designer"), Tampere museums: 2007, 192pp.
  3. ↑ Erkki Kinnunen, Joensuun uskonnollinen elämä 1954–1999 ("Joensuu religious life 1954-1999"), 2000.
  4. ↑ "Ystävyyttä Mäntsälän seurakunnan kanssa". Retrieved 2010-11-30.
  5. ↑ "Tatan ystävyysseurakunta". Retrieved 2010-11-30.
  6. ↑ "Ystävyysseurakunta Schwarzenbach" Retrieved 2010-11-30.

Coordinates: 62°35′36″N 29°46′54″E / 62.59333°N 29.78167°E / 62.59333; 29.78167

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