On Friday we bid farewell to Rosalind Gnatt in a touching service at Bergkirche in Wiesbaden. Rosalind passed away on April 5, 2025 at the age of 72. We have lost an inspiring, passionate and warm-hearted woman who was the first pastor of the United Church of Christ (UCC) within the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN).
I remember very well when the request from our UCC partners came if we are willing to receive Rosalind after finishing her theological studies at the Union Thelogical Seminary in New York for an internship in EKHN. The deanery of Wiesbaden which is part of the relationship between EKHN and the UCC was willing to provide an internship and the congregation of Bergkirche was ready to receive her.
Born and raised in Florida, Rosalind Gnatt’s career initially took her to the stages of major opera houses in Washington and New York as a soprano. Her love of music remained influential throughout her life – later she brought it passionately into her church services. But first she continued in a different direction: it was not until she was over 50 that she turned her back on her second career as a successful real estate agent and followed her inner call to theology. After her two years internship in Wiesbaden she was ordained in February 2015 at Judson Memorial Church in New York City but kept on serving as pastor in the Bergkirche. Wiesbaden in particular became her spiritual home. In the Bergkirche, she not only found a home, but also a task that she fulfilled with dedication.
Rosalind Gnatt was a pioneer: with great commitment she set up the English Community Outreach Project – a church service in English that brought people from all over the world together in Wiesbaden. Her Dinner-Church-Services around the table, the bilingual sermons and the conscious inclusion of female perspectives in the interpretation of the Bible were an expression of her deep desire to shape the church as an open and inclusive space. Her theological view was as empathetic as it was clear: a church that reaches out to the wounded, a language that emphasizes tenderness rather than power. She wanted to create networks – between cultures, between denominations, between people. She was also active in the region beyond the Bergkirche, holding baptisms, weddings and funerals in English, organizing sing-alongs and Bible study groups. She had a deep joy in life, a love of music, an unshakeable faith and a strong willingness to set out again and again.
Rosalind Gnatt has left her mark – in people’s hearts, in the Bergkirche, in the EKHN. We are grateful for everything she gave and we will remember her fondly. “God is my song” – this was the motto of her first service in the Wiesbaden Bergkirche. Rev. Christopher Easthill from the Anglican Congregation in Wiesbaden, Rev. Markus Nett and Rev. Helmut Peters reminded us on that in the funeral service. May this song continue to resound for her in eternity.
