St. Josef parish in Moers
Parish breaks new ground in locking technology with electronic access solution
Many parishes in Germany are currently undergoing dramatic upheaval. One reason for this is the increasing number of people leaving the church and the associated drop in income. More and more parishes are therefore being merged in order to achieve cost savings. This is also the case in the parish of St. Josef in Moers – which is now an amalgamation of three individual parishes. The fact that the parish buildings committee decided to purchase an electronic locking system from WILKA despite the turbulent times may therefore seem surprising at first glance. However, it is this very investment that brings the parish significant cost benefits and greater flexibility.
Herbert Werth, head priest at St. Josef, was initially rather sceptical about the switch, as he reports: "I very quickly realised the benefits, however, and now I wouldn't want to be without the convenience. Just one example: I can use a single transponder to open and close the 30 electronic locking cylinders on all relevant external doors at our three locations. Before the switch, I always had an unwieldy and heavy bunch of keys with me and had to search for the right keys first."
Naturally, the merger of the three parishes of St. Ludger in Kapellen, St. Bonifatius in Asberg and St. Josef in Moers Stadtmitte in 2008 led to the centralisation of administration. This also involved cutting staff numbers in a socially acceptable way. In most cases, positions were not re-filled, for example when someone retired due to old age. There are now no longer any caretakers in the parish. They used to make sure that all premises were always properly locked.
Until the merger, each parish had its own mechanical locking system – meaning that there was a jumble of keys. Fortunately, there had been no problems with break-ins in the past, but nobody knew exactly who had keys any more. From Father Werth's point of view, this was definitely a serious security problem.
Ground-breaking decision
"When we were considering having duplicate keys made at a cost of over €2,000 in 2014 in the buildings committee, we also started thinking about an electronic locking system for the first time. Purely because the issue of duplicate keys quickly becomes a thing of the past when such systems are used. Of course, there was also the fact that a few cylinders could be purchased for the same amount. At that point, a board member put us in touch with the specialist security dealer Aljamal from Duisburg, which introduced us to the easy locking system from WILKA. We compared several systems, but the simple and convenient solution from WILKA, which is perfectly tailored to our needs, ultimately won us over," continues Father Herbert Werth.
After all, WILKA easy cylinders can be used to assign flexible access authorisations for short periods of time, particularly for facilities with frequently changing users. Around 150 internal and external employees at the three St. Josef sites are equipped with a transponder. In addition, the central issuing office also regularly issues transponders to people or groups using one of the three parish halls for celebrations or similar events, in return for a deposit. Thanks to the flexible issuing of authorisations, a lost transponder – unlike a key – is no longer a problem.
Simple administration
Access is customised both in terms of location and time using a computer or a mobile programming device. Every locking process for every door is logged with the date and time and with details of the user. This data, door events and battery status are transmitted to a programming device and can be called up at any time via the management software.
The 30 cylinders were installed by specialist dealer Aljamal over a period of five years. "If you like, this is a perfect interdenominational partnership that cannot be valued highly enough, especially in this day and age. Incidentally, our employees have also welcomed the switch to electronic systems across the board, as they all recognise the benefits. For example, it is now no longer necessary for anyone to drive out to the parish halls in the evening and lock the doors after celebrations," emphasises Father Herbert Werth.
WILKA can look back on many years of experience in equipping places of worship with electronic locking technology. At a time when many parishes are facing immense challenges, every opportunity to make savings is welcome. Caretakers or sextons, who used to live right next to the parish hall, are now only present in a very few parishes. In addition, parishes have been forced to find new sources of income. "Using the parish hall regularly for events outside the church means the high costs of the premises can be covered," says Herbert Werth.
An electronic locking system such as WILKA easy brings convenience and a high level of security in such a context. "A number of events and private celebrations take place every month in the parish of St. Josef in Moers. Without secure transponders, this would be almost impossible to achieve. This is because, unlike with a mechanical key, people hiring the premises only receive access authorisation for a very limited period of time. And if a transponder is lost, it can simply be de-registered without having to replace an entire locking cylinder directly," explains Christian Schwab, Head of Technical Sales Electronics at WILKA.
Everyone in Moers is so enthusiastic about the WILKA easy electronic locking system that the next investment is scheduled for this year. The four parish kindergartens are also to be fully equipped with the easy locking system.