Posted on 11/03/2007 10:38:41 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
In spring 2005, the Rev. Carol Solovitz, pastor of Zumbro Lutheran, had the honor of preaching the English service for two weeks in Wittenberg, Germany, in Martin Luther's church: the Stadtkirche (city church).
Inspired by her visit, members of Zumbro met in April 2006 with the prospect of forming a tour to Germany. By September 2006 -- a year in advance -- the trip was sold out. On Sept. 10, 2007, a full bus left the church parking lot on its way to the Minneapolis airport, flying Iceland Air to Frankfurt.
On our first day, we toured the Wartburg, where Luther was the first to translate the New Testament into German, providing the basis for modern German. Our next stop was the city of Erfurt, where Luther took his monastic vows and later was ordained as a priest. Other sites in the Luther area included Lutherstadt Eisleben, where we visited the birth and death houses, the church where he was baptized and the church where he gave his last sermons. In Leipzig, we visited the St. Thomas church, where Lutheran composer Johann Sebastian Bach was the director of music for 27 years. In Lutherstadt Wittenberg, the center of Reformation activity, we visited the Castle Church, where Luther placed the 95 theses on the door in 1517.
During a three-day stay in Berlin, we toured the city seeing such famous sites as the Brandenburg Gate, the Capitol building, Potsdamer Platz, the Ku-Damm, the Olympic Stadium and the home of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran minister, who during World War II was a central figure in the Protestant church's struggle against Nazism.
Continuing south, we made a stop in Rochester's sister city of Moosburg, staying two nights in the small community of Wartenberg. We further toured Munich; attended a folk music presentation and had dinner in the Hofbrauhaus; toured Bavarian countryside and the Alps; and made stops at Neuschwanstein castle and the Wies church, staying at the delightful hotel Alte Post in Oberammergau. On our last day, we viewed Germany's largest Lutheran church in Ulm, which seats 20,000 people and has the highest church steeple in the world.
The morning after our farewell dinner at the historic Hotel Ritter in Heidelberg, we left Germany with memories of the most beautiful, sunny, comfortable, fall weather, great four-star hotels, excellent meals, great step-on guides and an exposure to the rich heritage of our church.
A legend
Occupying the shelves of the world's libraries, more books were written by and about Martin Luther than any other human being except Jesus of Nazareth. Exposing the scandal of the sale of indulgences, Luther protested the purchase of certificates that allowed a specified number of days of permitted sins for paying a price, which also would allow release of deceased relatives and friends from purgatory. In his teachings, he stressed justification by faith, the universal priesthood of believers and the supremacy of scripture, which form the cornerstone of Protestantism.
Luther wrote music, including the theme song of the Reformation, "A Mighty Fortress is our God," and started the custom of giving presents at Christmas, honoring Christ instead of the saints. He also was the first to use lights on Christmas trees, using candles to replace the stars he noticed shining through the evergreens at night. Today, there are more than 330 million Protestants throughout the world.
The group
Participants in the tour included Clarence and Donna Baalson, Lyle and Dorothy Bacon, Howard and Barbara Borgen, Rachel Boyum, Don and Pat Butters, Gordon Christianson, Sonja Galstad, Cecilia Gulson, Dick and Majel Hall, Guy and Sharon Hostetter, Lance and Carol Jacobson, Tom and Jo Johnson, Ken and Nancy Kaufman, LeRoy and Jo-Anne Larson, Bette Lee, Harris Madsen, Tim and Sharryn Melin, Duane and Addie Muri, Loren and Carol Nelson, Kay Penstone, Noel and Ann Peterson, Gladys Roberts, Delores Sinclair, Carol and Steve Solovitz, Bob and Jean Streyle, Lois Swanson and Jill Wright. I led the tour.
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About the writer: I was a German teacher at John Marshall High School from 1967 to 1998 and chair of the Foreign Language Department. For 34 years, I took German students on summer tours to Germany.
Getting there: We traveled by coach from the Zumbro Lutheran Church parking lot to the Humphrey Terminal, then flew Iceland Air to Frankfurt.
Where you stayed: We stayed at the SAS Radisson in Erfurt, the Country Park Hotel in Brehna, the Holiday Inn-Mitte in Berlin, the Reiter Braeu in Wartenberg, the Alte Post in Oberammergau and the Ibis Hotel in Heidelberg. Most of our hotels were four-star hotels.
Where to eat: We had breakfast and dinner daily in the hotels; lunch was on our own.
Side trips: None -- we stuck to the itinerary, but missed Worms because of a traffic jam.
Travel tips: Pay attention to all the tips given out by the tour company or the tour leader. This group paid close attention; therefore, there were no major problems.
I’m not denying any of that. However, one shouldn’t over-generalize when making statements like “THE protestants do this and THE catholics do that”. As my statement above is factually correct, I made my point.
When I hear ‘study German roots’ I think of Husserl, Hegel, and especially the firebrand Heidegger who traced etymology of German words for the presently hidden original meaning.
Slice of life. Thanks for sharing it.
I was referring only to the “confessionaL” Protestants whose churches are entirely state supported. The anabaptists have always been separatists, in that they denied the right of the state to control their doctrine and worship. Like the Mennonites who began in Switzerland and were driven from pilar to post until many escaped to America. There were also the separatists like the “Pilgrims” who fled England for Holland and then, to allowe their children to stay English, immigrated to America. Such sects were as badly treated as Catholics were by Elizabeth’s government. One difference is that Catholics, like Jews and unlike the Protestant sects, have an international character and connection. All protestants, from day one, are nationist in orientation. The great exception among the Reformers, was Calvin, who wished to reform the whole Catholic Church along different theological lines. Luther was nothing but German; Calvin was never just French. While he was alive, Geneva was the Protestant Rome.
As I said, the article you "posted to" is "Lutherans study German roots". Martin Luther is mentioned quite a bit. Maybe you should read it again.
Sorry, when you said posted, I thought you mean the articles I linked to.
Sorry, about that.
ping
If anybody wants to play that game, I am quite willing to slam the ball in the other direction. But I think it would be better to focus on the content of the article. I don't think one has to be Lutheran to appreciate them studing the origins of Luther's reformation.
Some 30,000 Russian Orthodox Clergy were murder by the Communists.
Can you name any other Christian faith that was targeted to that degree by the Communists?
Great, you take offense to a Roman Catholic's posting by insulting Eastern Orthodoxy. Take some time to wipe the egg off your face.
Roseanne, sixth season episode "I Pray The Lord My Stove To Keep"
As did the majority of Catholics in Austria and Germany (and Hitler was arguably more popular in the former than the latter). Your point?
If I hear the "Russian were victims" fairytale one more time, I will vomit. Most of the "ethnics" were purged along with Trotsky. During Stalin's reign, but especially after his death, Comintern was RUSSIAN dominated.
(wild eyed conspiracy theories aside) do you have information backing up that this was somehow a Russian led revolution?
btw stalin died in 1953; 36 years after the october ‘revolution’.
I assumed the poster was Orthodox. But then neither am I Lutheran. I could just as easily have brought out insulting remarks about the Roman church or any other denomination.
This article for this thread is about Lutherans going back to the roots of their faith. The poster immediately wanted to malign Lutherans by making a link between German Christians and Nazism. My purpose was to use fallacies so that the poster would come to see his fallacies. He has stopped using fallasies, and therefore my method comes to an end as well.
If there had been an article about Orthodox making some trip to a monastery in Russia or Serbia, and somebody immediately make a connection between the Orthodox church and Communism, I would have used the same type of fallacies for some other denomination. If you were offended, then you had the correct response. Fallacies are not very convincing in arguments. That is my point.
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