Posted on 11/30/2007 5:41:16 AM PST by Alex Murphy
CADILLAC - In Martin Luther's hometown of Wittenberg, Germany, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation, there are no remaining Lutheran congregations. Rumor has it there are only two Lutherans left in the entire, historic city.
Throughout Europe, huge churches and Cathedrals sit empty Sunday mornings, viewed more as artifacts and museums than places of worship.
Rev. Bryan Salminen of Cadillac’s Emmanuel Lutheran Church experienced the dearth of the faithful on a recent trip to Germany.
"In August I was there," Salminen explained. "Wittenberg is the founding place of Protestantism and Luther is very much respected. They have statues and museums, but no places of worship."
Salminen arrived in Germany to speak to U.S. Lutheran pastors on retreat, pastors who wanted to retrace Luther's steps and visit historic sites. And when it came time to hold worship service, the Castle Church, where Luther posted his 95 Theses, was not available. In fact, their request to hold services was denied.
So instead, the Lutherans held services in the local Catholic Church.
"Isn't it ironic?" mused Salminen. "Luther broke away from the Catholic Church and we served communion there."
It's not just Lutherans that are absent from the Wittenberg population. Christian church attendance throughout Europe has declined by at least 25 percent over the last three decades. According to the Center for the Study on Global Christianity, the decline in Christian influence "is most evident in France, Sweden and the Netherlands, where church attendance is less than 10 percent in some areas."
Seeing the decline of Christianity in the birthplace of Protestantism was shocking to Salminen.
"It's interesting to the whole reformed church what's going on over in Germany," he stated.
"It's stunning that in the founding place of the reformation there is nothing going on. I was stunned that they have these enormous churches to seat thousands and you have 10 to 15 people there."
Now the birthplace of the Protestant revolution is a mission field.
The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod hopes to revive the faith in Wittenberg by planting a new, Lutheran congregation.
The man in charge of this project, German theologian and scholar Rev. Wilhelm Torgerson, will explain the Germany Wittenberg Project Sunday at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Cadillac.
"Torgerson is a fascinating fellow," explained Salminen. "He is now working with our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to do mission work in the home of Lutheranism and he is here to drum up support."
A vacant building located near St. Mary’s Protestant Church, where Luther often preached, has been purchased by the synod with the goal of creating a Lutheran bookstore, welcome center, human-care office and chapel.
Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod hopes to revive the faith in Wittenberg by planting a new, Lutheran congregation.
Good that it's the sane, orthodox Lutherans doing this, not the likes of these LINOs.
About 50,000 people live in Wittenberg. Saint Andrew pray for us.
A couple of weeks ago, our pastor was talking about the missionary work we’re supporting & I asked him if anyone considered sending missionaries to Europe.
He was born (and died) in Eisleben.
Thanks. I knew Wittenberg was where he moved to as an adult to teach, and Ehrfurt is what came to mind.
I’ve read several articles which referred to Ehrfurt as his “spititual home”, but, of course, I con’t put my finger on one right now.
if anyone considered sending missionaries to Europe.
I have know of more than one person to go to Europe for Christian missions. Our church currently supports a family doing work with the immigrant Turks in Germany.
And in our little (25K) city, we have a gaggle of Roman Catholic nuns who come over here from Nigeria to do missions. (A good buddy of mine does maintenance work for them, and has tales.... )
Our denomination has church planting missionaries in Germany, Sweden, France and Spain that I can think of off the top of my head. I quick look shows that I missed church planting efforts in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Rep., Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Ukraine, England and Wales. Looks like about 28 cities currently targeted.
http://www.mtw.org/home/site/templates/default.asp?_resolutionfile=templatespath|default.asp&area_2=public/Church%20Planting/Europe/europe
Good!
How exciting!! May God’s blessings be upon these efforts.
Rumor has it there are only two Lutherans left in the entire, historic city.Arguably, there are no Lutherans in Wittenberg since 1817, when the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches were united to build the Evangelical Church in Prussia. Since then, Wittenberg is part of the Evangelische Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen - the Evangelical Church of the Province of Saxony.
About 50,000 people live in Wittenberg. Saint Andrew pray for us.
I looked it up on the homepage of the protestant community of Wittenberg and it seems that there are about 5000 Lutherans in the community. Also, they DEFINITELY have a place of worship: The Stadtkirche St. Marien in Wittenberg, where Luther preached himself.
Of course I don’t know whether the German Evangelische Kirche and the US american Lutherans are exactly the same.
I see. Thanks for the clarification :)
Umm, no. Born and died in Eisleben, and spent his entire adult life in Wittenberg. As a college student, after being nearly struck by lightning, he joined the Augustinian monastery and attended University in Erfurt. His first real job though, was as a professor at the then new University of Wittenberg.
I’ve spent a total of about 7 weeks, over a span of 3 years, studying and living in Wittenberg, and getting acquainted with some Christians there.
Since the 1930s Wittenberg has had an immense Nitrogen plant (it takes literally 10 minutes to drive by it...) next to it. Nitrogen of course is an essential element in fertilizer and—weapons. In East German days, the plant employed some 7,000 people, now it employs only a skeleton-crew of 700...just to maintain it, as it is shut down. Consequently, as is typical of eastern Germany, the unemployment of Wittenberg is pushing 20%. One good thing about the plant being closed is Wittenberg used to be known for terrible pollution (and a lot of the Luther-era and medieval soft stonework has terrible erosion from that time), now the air is crystal clear.
The Evangelisch denomination is simply the mainline (primarily) Lutheran church of Germany. Although it is an official state church—different than anything of course in the USA, like mainline churches here, it is dominated by liberal theology, but has a “remnant” left of faithful folk.
It was formed in 1817 (by a monarch’s command) through a union of the overwelming majority (90+%) Lutheran churches with a tiny minority of Reformed (Calvinist) churches. Through a “Landkirche” system (meaning regional organization and control) individual Reformed churches stayed that way, and, individual Lutheran churches stayed that way. The communion is open—but a Reformed minister would not be called to a Lutheran church—or visa versa.
However, the combination liberal theology (remember, it all came out of Germany—even as early as 1817) and, the union with those nasty heretical (so they thought) Calvinists/Reformed, made a few Lutherans jump ship—and form, primarily in America, a new kind of fundamentalist Lutheran denomination, the Missouri Synod Lutherans (as well as a few others like Wisconsin).
These Lutherans are a lot more faithful to the teachings of Martin Luther than the Evangelish (which like say the ELCA (mainline) Lutherans here in the USA, nearly anything goes...), and also, like very few Protestant groups, practice closed communion (though they often call it “close” communion—in a positive way, of keeping members close)—that is unless you are a member of a Missouri Synod Church (LCMS), you are not allowed to take communion there.
LCMS is in communion with the (really tiny minority) Free Lutheran church of Germany—and actually, all Lutherans cooperate (it is interesting to see LCMS cooperating with ELCA, and the German Evangelisch) with each other in Wittenberg. Luther was indeed a man of peace (even though sometimes very bombastic) and it shows in Wittenberg, even to this day.
I have to say, although I am not Lutheran, I admire Dr. Martin Luther greatly—and share much of his theology, and, I’ve had some of my most profound personal spiritual experiences in Wittenberg—honestly, the place seems to resonate as holy ground.
I encourage all Christians to visit Wittenberg—the place where Christian renewal and the modern age began.
An example of a Landkirche. (see above)
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