New pastoral café planned in the "Bauhütte"

From next summer, the Catholic Church of the City of Zug, the City Church Zug and the Reformed Church of the Canton of Zug, working together, want to open an Encounter and Consultation Café and thereby take action against anonymous loneliness.

A cosy, bright wooden building that invites you to linger and allows you room to treat yourself to a coffee or to enjoy the drink you brought with you. You can also read a book inside, talk to other guests or simply just sit in the garden. If you don't want to talk, you can move on without saying a word. Those who would like to talk can, however, always reach out to the pastoral or social workers who are present. This is a possible preview of the oecumenical Café for Encounter and Consultation (Café für Begegnung und Beratung) in the "Construction shed (Bauhütte)" near the church of St. Oswald in Zug, which is planned in cooperation with the Catholic Church of the City of Zug, the City Church Zug and the Reformed Church of the Canton Zug. The opening is planned for the summer, and is intended to help Zug become a city with less anonymous loneliness.

"There is a lot of loneliness in Zug, and a need for low-threshold and pastoral support."

says Thomas Schmid, Church Councillor of the Catholic Parish of Zug. This was the result of a survey carried out by the project group of the Reformed and Catholic Church Zug in a workshop together with the ten of the most important social institutions of the city of Zug. The pastoral café will be open to all social classes, regardless of religious affiliation or age group, and should help to establish contacts and address personal difficulties. There will be no need to consume, which should also make the offer attractive for students of the nearby paedagogical college, for example. "This promotes social mixing," says Schmid.

Photo 1: Church councillor Thomas Schmid and Susanne Klass from the City Church Zug provide information about the planned pastoral café in the construction shed near the St. Oswald’s church in Zug.
Photo 2: The Catholic parish has renovated the old ‘construction shed’ near the St. Oswalds church in Zug.

Due of increasing secularisation, new offers are needed
The churches have a high level of pastoral competence. "As a result of the growing secularisation, however, the vicarage doors and the confessionals have lost much of their importance," says Thomas Schmid. New offers are needed to facilitate contacts with chaplains and social workers. "Oecumenical offers trigger fewer defensive reflexes in people who are far from the church," says Susanne Klass of the City Church Zug, which has a lot of experience in oecumenical cooperation. The Zug concept is based on the Lucerne version of the oecumenical café "Zwitscher-Bar". For this reason, its former manager was appointed as project manager.

The churches expect an average of 20 visitors a day in the café, and the majority of the staff will work on a volunteer basis. With one exception: "A theologian or a social worker should be employed with a 60% workload," explains Thomas Schmid. The opening hours are planned to be from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday. This would also allow the "Bauhütte" to be used and rented out in the evenings and on weekends for meetings and other events, such as the Sunday church café. The infrastructure of the building, which is the meeting and venue of the Catholic Church Zug, is very suitable for the project. An initial investment of CHF 12,000 is planned, in particular for the creation of the new workplace, as well as a suitable coffee machine. "We are thinking of the "caffè sospeso” idea, based on the Italian custom, in which, in addition to your own coffee, you pay for another one, which is then handed out to a needy person on request," says Susanne Klass enthusiastically.

At the parish meeting of the Catholic Church on 15 December, a loan of CHF 60,933 is to be granted for the opening of the pastoral café. The costs would be shared between the two parishes, with the Catholic parish of Zug covering two-thirds of the costs and the Reformed Church Zug one third. The strategic management of the pastoral café is to be the subject of a works commission. After the planned opening in the summer of 2021, the project will be monitored for three years and, if necessary, adapted. "If there is too little or no need, we will stop the project," says Thomas Schmid.