Father Eckart Horn, the new minister at Scarborough’s St. Nicholas Church, arrived in the United States from his home in Hamburg, Germany July 3, 1990. 

“I made it in time for Independence Day,” he said with a smile.

Three years prior to the move, Horn met his future wife – a German instructor for middle school students – during her junior year at a university in the city.

“She didn’t really speak that much German and my English wasn’t that great,” said Horn, who struggled with foreign languages as a child. “All of a sudden you have a reason to learn the language. It motivates you.”

Horn said they “moved quickly” in their relationship and were engaged by the time she returned to her home in Portland to finish her education and begin a career. After a year spent communicating long-distance, Horn said he was thrilled to finally move closer to his new family even though it meant leaving his theology studies and therapist training behind. 

“There comes a point when it was long enough,” he said.

Work was more difficult to find in Portland during the early 1990s, and Horn said after he finished his theology studies he found himself working as a therapist for a local counseling service. 

“It was rewarding but it just wasn’t getting it done,” he said. “There wasn’t enough to pay the bills.”

With his wife staying home to take care of their three children, Horn began working as a painter’s assistant and eventually started his own construction company in the mid 1990s. Quickly tiring of the physical demands of the construction industry, Horn began studying for the clergy in 2004 and was ordained as a minister in the Episcopal church last year. Although he had always harbored an interest in the ministry, Horn said he hadn’t found the right church until his grandmother-in-law introduced him to the Episcopalian faith. 

“Episcopal doesn’t really exist in Germany,” he said. “Finding a church that could be liberal but have a strong tradition was like ‘Wow.’”

Horn said German churches tend to either be very traditional or completely new-age and having been raised in a seriously conservative faith, finding a balance between flexibility and standard values was refreshing but not necessarily easy, he said. 

“It was a shift in belief,” he said. “Everybody has to struggle to figure out what works for [them]. There were a few things in the religious community I was brought up in that were not OK with me.”

While the Episcopalian faith has been a good fit for Horn since he began officiating at St. Nicholas Church on Route 1 in Scarborough last December, he said he would ultimately like to practice faith based “Christian Mystic” beliefs derived from the Catholic faith between the 13th and 14th centuries that largely focuses on meditation. 

“There just isn’t a church that does that kind of thing, and [Catholicism] wasn’t really an option for me since I really wanted to get married,” he said. 

A new sense of religion wasn’t the only thing Horn said took some getting used to after his move to the United States; Horn said he was surprised to discover how even relatively small signs of home could greatly affect him.

“Supermarkets were making an effort to bring in food from other countries and I saw Genoa salami. I had tears in my eyes,” he said. “It isn’t the big things one thinks to miss.”

Having lived in northern Germany – typically warmed by the Gulf Stream – Horn said severe Maine winters also took some getting used to. 

“If two inches of snow fell in Hamburg, nothing would go,” he said. “But in southern Germany it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

While Maine may have more snow than northern Germany, Horn said he had to adjust to a limited amount of daylight hours – especially in the winter – as Germany goes through light and dark periods during which he could remember dusk lasting until near midnight. 

Perhaps even more prevalent than the difference in weather is the sense with which American people value their beliefs both in religion and politics. 

“Getting used to the ‘winner-takes-all’ system is so hard,” he said. “Here people are forced to do so many compromises. Sometimes I wish there would be more options for more [people] so some voices don’t get lost.”

There is no compromise in Horn’s belief in the power of forgiveness, however. In an attempt to fulfill what he said is becoming a universal spiritual need “for something to hold onto,” Horn said he will continue to “hold the front door wide open and point to the cross.”

“It’s about spiritual care, that is the main purpose of the church. The message is forgiveness,” he said. 

Horn said in an increasingly fast paced society it can be difficult for young people to slow down and answer their “great spiritual need” by asking for forgiveness and sometimes other “creature comforts” are used as a substitute. Despite the short-term affects of these comforts, Horn said the only true way to fill the void is to confront the need for spirituality by asking for forgiveness. 

“Jesus said ‘Feed my people,’” he said. “That means don’t give a jacket to someone who is hungry, don’t give oil to someone who is thirsty.”

Several weeks ago, Horn said he met with several other ministers and two Portland city officials to discuss the role of ministers and policymakers this upcoming winter when most families will struggle to heat their homes. Horn said he has seen a few churchgoers relying on their faith to carry them through what could already be a difficult economic climate for many.

“It will come very badly,” he said. “We have to face it, we have to deal with it.” 

 Although many churches will also be affected by the high price of heating oil this winter, Horn said St. Nicholas is fortunate to have a fairly new boiler and the option of inviting a new tenant to share the building after the Fiddlehead Center for the Arts moves out. The church, having just begun a Sunday school program, is strong, he said. 

“There is a good spirit around here,” he said. “I feel I have been called here. It would be great to make the church larger just to spread forgiveness and be a beacon for that, but I want to stay.”

Horn said he and his wife were expecting their fourth child, the third daughter, earlier this week. 

To learn more about St. Nicholas Church visit their Web site at www.stnicholas-me.org.