Christmas Church Aarø

Aarø Church was consecrated on December 30, 1906 and was named Julekirke (Christmas Church).For many years it was believed that the name came from the fact that the church was dedicated at Christmas time.In 2016, church historian Carsten Bach-Nielsen of Aarhus University questioned whether the explanation for the church's name was correct. And a closer look showed that the explanation was quite different:When Aarø Church was built in 1906, Aarø, like the rest of South Jutland, was part of the German Empire and Bishop Kaftan was the ecclesiastical head of South Jutland and resided in Kiel.The German Reich had a congregation in Palestine, which the Reich had received from the consul in Constantinople, and Bishop Theodor Kaftan was on his trip to Palestine with the German imperial couple in 1898. The imperial couple traveled there to take part in a church consecration in Jerusalem and on the way Bishop Kaftan visited the German church in Bethlehem with the imperial couple, which bears the name of Christmas Church and stands for peace and reconciliation.At Christmas 1906, when the church on Aarø was to be consecrated by Schleswig's bishop Theodor Kaftan, Kaftan thought that since the great German kingdom had a church in the southernmost part of the kingdom called the Christmas Church, it was only natural that the northernmost church in the kingdom would too should bear the name Christmas Church. That's why he gave it the name Christmas Church - for peace and reconciliation.
Source: aaro.dk