Bold Women of the Reformation Tour

by Judy Springer

I was quite taken with Ludwig der Springer, pictured below. The story is that, upon seeing the hill upon which the Wartburg Castle now sits, he is supposed to have exclaimed, "Warte, Berg—du sollst mir eine Burg werden!" (Wait, mountain—thou shalt become a castle for me!") Because the hill was not quite within his lands, it is said that he had clay from his lands transported to the top of the hill so that he could swear that the castle was built on his ground.

How bold is that! Myth or fact—it really doesn't matter to me, because it is his name that has captured my attention. Quite a story when your own name is Springer.

Ludwig der Springer, Wartburg Castle
But of the many bold people about whom we learned on our tour, both contemporary and historical, the person who stands out the most to me is Katharina von Bora Luther. The more that we heard about her, the more in awe I was. She was truly the boldest of the bold. Consider that:

• When she was only five years old, Katharina's father sent her to a convent in Brehna. Five years later, she was transferred to the cloister at Nimbschen, where at age 16 she took her vows as a nun. From her sheltered life, how much would she have known about the outside world?

• Yet, on Easter Eve in 1523, she and 11 other nuns escaped from the convent under cover of darkness. Leonhard Koppe, friend of Luther and Torgau councilman, drove the getaway wagon. The smuggling of nuns was a capital offense. Bold nuns; bold driver.

• Three nuns returned to their family homes; eight were married off fairly quickly. Katharina remained. Luther found her a temporary home with the Cranach family. After a brief romance with Jerome Paumgartner was terminated by his parents (probably because they didn't want him to marry a penniless, runaway nun), Katharina was presented with another suiter, Dr. Kaspar Glatz, 20 years older than she. But Katharina boldly proclaimed that she had "neither desire nor love" in herself for him. She declared resolutely that she would marry only Nicholas von Amsdorf or Martin Luther or remain single, an unthinkable proclamation, an unthinkable act. Incredibly bold, this woman.

• On June 13, 1525, a Tuesday evening, Katharina and Martin became engaged before witnesses including Johann Bugenhagen (pastor of the Wittenberg city church), Justus Jonas, and the Cranachs. Immediately after the engagement, Katharina and Martin were married by Pastor Bugenhagen. A bold move, considering that Luther's friends were opposed to the marriage. Luther was 42; Katherina, 26.

• The Luthers were wed for 20 years and blessed with six children—three boys and three girls. Meanwhile, Katharina managed their large home, took in boarders, raised vegetable and flower gardens, brewed beer, bought cattle, and proofread Luther's translation of the New Testament, among other things. Oh my! Valiant woman, she!

• After Luther's death in 1546, among Katharina's many trials was that she had very little income. She was dependent on the generosity of the Elector John Frederick and the princes of Anhalt. But more distressing was that Chancellor Brϋck insisted that the boys be taken from their home in order to get a better education. Katharina fought tooth and nail until the chancellor gave up that idea. Bold mother!

• Katharina also had to face the threats of war and becoming a refugee. With the onset of the Schmalkaldic War in 1546 and the defeat of John Frederick, Wittenberg was in a panic. Katharina fled with her family to Magdeburg. When she returned in 1547, her farm was in ruins. Her animals were gone, and the buildings were burned to the ground. She was forced to borrow money to rebuild--bold woman to even think to do such in that day.

• In 1552, the plague broke out in Wittenberg. Katharina decided she must leave her home again. During the trip, her horses were frightened and she was thrown from the carriage. Severely injured, she never regained her strength. She died in December 20, 1555. Katharina had lived an amazingly bold and courageous life.

I think perhaps boldness comes, not from a natural inclination to be daring or fearless, but from the conviction that something is the right thing to do. Perhaps steadfast, tenacious, and persevering are better definitions of bold. And maybe that's what we mean with our triennium theme "Act Boldly"—not that we are fearless or audacious, but that, in knowing what is right, we have the faith to do what is right.

Deaconesses serve with dedication

(from Wednesday, April 25)

We visited the diaconal community of Dresden on another beautiful spring day. Sisters Esther and Sylvia welcomed us into the chapel on the extensive grounds and gave us a sketch of the history of the community.

In 1844, not long after the foundation of the first deaconess community in 1839 not far away in Dusseldorf, four Dresden noblewomen opened a house where they would live, pray, and work together, serving the sick in their own home. In 1846, these women moved to a larger property, and here they remain.

During World War II, Dresden was bombed and the deaconesses' chapel and hospital were not spared. In 1961, the chapel was reopened. Sister Esther told us that the chapel is the spiritual home of the community and that diaconal service is not possible without Word and Communion. The sisters welcome neighbors and visitors to join them in worship daily. Their chapel houses a fine organ and choir, often heard in concerts and cantata services.

On the front of the lectern in the chapel is a Coventry cross, formed of large nails. The cathedral of Conventry in England was also heavily damaged in World War II; it has been at the forefront of movements for peace and reconciliation ever since (see www.crossofnails.org). In 1965, the Coventry movement sent a group of young Englishmen to help rebuild the deaconesses' hospital. The deaconesses have never forgotten this. Every Friday at noon, the community gathers in the chapel to pray for peace and reconciliation using the Coventry prayer: Father forgive.

Now the deaconesses' hospital is a 250-bed general hospital, the first in the city to be certified by a nationally known independent agency. At least 1000 babies are born here each year, a point of friendly rivalry among the three hospitals in Dresden.

The deaconesses also care for the elderly and handicapped with a wide range of services. Youth is also served here, with a kindergarten for the very young and a vocational high school that prepares young adults for work in health care. The deaconesses also sponsor a respected nursing school, whose 170 students follow a three-year program.

The deaconesses operate another industry: the Hostenbackerei, near the hospital. In one small room, more than a million wafers of communion bread are made each year.

As Sisters Esther and Sylvia led us around the beautiful grounds, we were all impressed by the hum of dedicated activity all around us. But the deaconesses aren't just efficient workers with a hospital, school, and nursing home to run. They have dedicated their lives to Christ, living a common life of apostolic poverty and prayer. And what amazing fruit that dedication to Christ has brought forth in the world: healing, reconciliation, and beauty.

You can see their website at www.diako-dresden.de.

You never know whom you will meet in Germany!

by the Rev. Joanne Fitzgerald
of Elmwood Park, Illinois
(in black and white in photo at left)

It had been a very long day in Dresden for the bold women of the ELCA trekking, by bus of course, the countryside of eastern Germany. When we returned to Leipzig, we immediate went to dinner, in haste to be at a concert at the Bach Museum. But we weren't quick and were too late to enter in. You must be "punctlich" here — no entrance after the concert starts.

As we went back down three flights of stairs to the entrance, a man entering through the doorway caught my eye. He looked familiar. I called out, "Mark!" and he looked back and we connected. It was Mark Sundberg, a pastor from Lake Zurich, Illinois, USA. He and I had graduated from LSTC in 1994. Two of the people I was with returned and two others (Gayle and David from Spokane) stayed behind while we stayed together to talk. It was one of those aha! moments! He had been asking, well, praying, for someone to talk with and we were his answer. What an awesome God we have! Never would I have guessed or even thought that I would have seen someone I knew from so far away. And so what a wonderful day it was!

(Joanne asked me to enter this into the blog for her — ed.)

The Sisters of the Augustinerkloster

(from Friday, April 26)

In the city of Erfurt stands the Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther lived as a monk from 1505 to 1508. After Luther's Reformation swept Germany, the monastic life faded away--the last monk of the order Luther knew here died in 1556. And for centuries after, the buildings housed schools, libraries, government offices, museums, and other secular concerns.

Now, after nearly five hundred years, the monastic life is flourishing again at the Augustinerkloster. Six Lutheran women, one of whom is an ordained pastor, live in community according to the ancient Benedictine rule. They are part of a twentieth-century renewal of religious life in Germany--the Castellar Ring of which they are a part was founded in 1950. The sisters have been here at the Augustinerkloster since 1996.

We joined the sisters at midday prayer, which they sing together in the Augustinerkirche where Martin Luther prayed so many years ago, and then enjoyed lunch in the refectory.

How do Lutheran monastic sisters live today? We talked with one of the sisters later that afternoon. She told us that the goal of their common life is to seek God in all things and prefer nothing to Christ. The sisters take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, owning nothing individually and sharing all things in common. Paychecks and pension checks go into the common chest. Most of the sisters have jobs outside the cloister; the sister we spoke to is a physical therapist. The sisters work not only to support the community, but in order to share the condition of their neighbors.

The sisters pray together four times a day in the Augustinerkirche: 7 am, noon, 6 pm, and 7:30 pm; and celebrate Holy Communion every Sunday at 9:30 (with kirchekaffee afterward in the klosterstube!). They wear habits (long loose gray gowns, not very different from albs) only for the liturgy; the rest of the time they wear ordinary clothes and a cross pendant. There are now about 20 groups of Lutheran sisters in Germany. The sisters elect a prioress for a term and meet together in chapter every few weeks to talk over matters of concern. Every sister has a voice in the chapter.

An important part of their mission is to be engaged with the world outside the monastery. They are active in ecumenical conferences as well as with other religious communities and monasteries. And they maintain neighborhood and family ties.

The community maintains a guest house and conference center (several of our travelers stayed there), and of course, the klosterstube or café, a popular place among neighborhood students and retired people.


The Benedictine way of life emphasizes hospitality, welcoming the guest as one would welcome Christ. The bold and faithful sisters of the Augustinerkloster truly welcomed us in that spirit.

From Thursday, April 26th

Nimbschen and Grimma (not names from a fairy tale!)
After leaving Leipzig, we road-tripped to a pastoral grove in which stood the ruins of the Nimbschen monastery where Katharina von Bora had lived as a nun until 1523, when she and eight other nuns escaped the convent because of the writings of Dr. Martin Luther.

We sat in the sun under the quietly quivering trees and ate lunch remembering Katharina, who had come to live in Marienthron (Mary's Throne), the Cistercian convent of Nimbschen, at age 8. She had two aunts there with her: One of them, her maternal aunt, Margarete von Haubitz, was the mother superior. At age 16, on October 8, 1515, Katharina took her vows as a nun. Her time at the convent, though austere, was a blessing to her and other women of their day, as by entering the convent they gained the ability to learn reading, writing, and some Latin.

But as Katharina and others caught wind of the growing reform movement, they grew dissatisfied with life at the convent, eventually conspiring to flee from it. Leaving a convent was difficult — leaving religious life was an offense punishable by death. The women secretly contacted Luther, begging for his assistance.

On Easter eve 1523, Luther helped Katharina and the others escape in the dark of night. Legend has them being pursued by armed guards from the monastery, climbing a wall, Katharina losing a shoe, and all nine nuns making their getaway in fish barrels carted by Luther’s friend, Leonhard Köppe, a city councilman of Torgau and a merchant who regularly delivered herring to the convent.

Under the bright sun, it was hard to contemplate both the dangerous escape and the fact that the area had experienced record floods in 2002 that devastated local towns such as Grimma. The convent sits on the banks of the Muhlde River, which reached 20 feet above flood stage and cut a wide swath in the small valley. The quiet town is working to make a comeback, thanks to the creative work of town planners, managers, and leaders.

The Lord Mayor of Grimma gave us a hearty welcome and the picnic lunch. The young Mayor of Grimma, Matthias Berger, gave us an overview of his town and how they recovered after the flooding. We gave the town a lot of business and a story to tell for months to come about the horde of Lutheran women who flooded the town one bright April day in 2007. (Picture is of the Grimma City Hall.)
Following our meeting with Mayor Berger and our buying frenzy (for some just another beer stop), we continued to Erfurt, the spiritual home of Martin Luther. It was in 1501–1505 in Erfurt that Luther studied theology and, according to his father’s desires, law. Here Luther went into the Augustinian monastery and later became a priest and preached in numerous churches.

Our evening came to a delightful close with an authentic German brats, sauerkraut, and beer hall dinner. We sang our grace and recalled Luther writing hymns to the popular beer hall songs of his day.

The different faces of Erfurt

Since Luther's day, the eastern German town of Erfurt has been not only an affluent town along a trading route but also the place in Europe for higher education and theological studies. Famours also for exporting its rare blue dye, Erfurt was a popular destination for students and an economic center. Today, the Universtiy of Erfurt, closed in 1817 and reopened in 1994, draws many young people and students from around Europe. Not only is the town rich in history, today it is a vibrant European city.

In the morning: Evangelische Augustinerkloster zu Erfurt
Our tour began in the Augustinerkloster (Augustinian monastery). After graduating from the University of Erfurt, Luther became a monk here. He even said his first Mass here.

Next to the monastery is the Church of St. Augustine, dating back to 1276. The original church windows are still intact and date from the 14th century (they were saved from the destruction that the chapel suffered during an English bombing raid during World War II). The church went through a major renovation, completed in 1993, that repaired the damage from the war. The windows are red and feature distinct circular designs that tell the story of St. Augustine.

Another remarkable element of this church is its wooden ceiling — not unusual in the churches in the area, we were told. We joined the sisters of the Casteller Ring Community, a Protestant religious order in the Benedictine tradition that lives in the monastery today, for prayer at noon. During the service, two mocking birds jumped from rafter to rafter and sang a cheerful song.

Our guide then led us to the winter chapel. We learned that many of these mammoth, old stone churches do not have heat, and so “winter churches,” with their smaller spaces that could be heated, were and still are used several months of the year. As we walked the corridor from the main church to the winter chapel, our guide told us that Luther would have walked this corridor in silence. This building is also featured in the movie, “Luther.”

Our guide told us of Luther’s work at the monastery and how he translated the Bible from Greek to Latin. The translated versions were large and had leather covers and painted letters.

The monastery’s museum opened in 2002 and features replicas of where Luther slept and worked, and a sample of the robe that he and the other monks would have worn. There is also a library housing around 60,000 books.

Luther’s time at the monastery did not sound very appealing to me. He ate once or, on rare occasions, twice a day. He slept in the unheated halls outside of his personal cell and woke at 3 a.m. every day. Every three hours he was called to the church to pray.

Erfurt in the afternoon
Next we investigated the bustling city. I stumbled upon one of the two major shopping complexes located in the heart of the city. It was a sunny day and the temperature was 73 degrees — a perfect opportunity to join the locals in eating ice cream at the closest Eis Café. My cone featured papaya and mango over a strawberry concoction.

I later found a front row seat at a bakery counter that was serving freshly baked bread — a perfect vantage point for taking in the local color and people-watching. This mall differed somewhat from what I am used to in the States. Amidst the other stores that carried American and European perfumes and cosmetics, there was a bakery in the food court as well as a fruit market. There was also a store dedicated to selling tea.

Erfurt at night
Some members of another group we ran into told us that Faustus’ was the place to be on Friday night. The outside tables were crowded, and it looked like all of the other outside restaurants in the area were crowded too.
The winding cobblestone streets feature quaint and colorful outdoor cafes though, located next to an older building that was painted yellow, I saw a super modern building made of iron and glass that towered over it. Construction sites in this city also start out as archaeological digs — no wonder, given the age of the city.

After a moonlit stroll down the winding cobblestone streets, I and my fellow dining companions arrived at the monastery. Half of our group actually stayed in the monastery during our visit; the monastery rents rooms (and there is a conference center). The rooms are modern, yet modest — no phones, TVs, or clock radios in these cozy rooms, and quiet hours are posted and expected to be observed.

Although there were some modern elements and shopping complexes that mirrored those in my own neighborhood in Chicago, I knew that I was somewhere very different and special.

Die Gemütlichkeit

The tour officially ended Saturday evening, April 28th. My flight home was not until Sunday afternoon, so I very much wanted to attend a church in Darmstadt, a suburb of Frankfurt where we had finished the tour.

Well, easier said than done. I asked at the hotel front desk about nearby churches and service times. The young woman at the desk put a lot of effort into helping me: The map she gave me had the symbols of churches on it, but not their names and the service times. She checked the phone book, and it didn't even have churches listed. The local newspaper had a listing of church names and service times, but not the addresses for those churches.

Not to be deterred, however (after all, I am a bold woman of the 21st century), I thanked her and decided that I would walk to what appeared on the map to be the closest church and see what time they had services. During my two weeks in Germany I had gathered that 10 a.m. was a pretty standard service time. The church on the map looked to be not more than a half hour walk from the hotel, so I set out about 9:30 a.m.

Before I reached the point on my map where there appeared to be a church, I heard church bells nearby. So, being the bold and intrepid woman that I am (being a bit of a stubborn German American doesn't hurt either), I simply followed the sound of the bells, which led me to Evangelische Friedensgemeinde Darmstadt (Peace Lutheran Church Darmstadt).

The service began at 10 a.m. with a familiar hymn, "Sing to the Lord of Harvest," in German,of course. I took some German in college, but unfortunately, most of that learning had flown out of my head in the ensuing 19 years of not using it. During the two-week trip, some of the German I had learned had come back to me, but I certainly wouldn't claim to be able to speak German.

An amazing thing happened,as the congregation stood to sing the hymn: I bounded out of the pew and began singing the hymn with gusto in German. I was so totally in the moment of being there in Germany with Germans and praising God that I absolutely forgot that German was not my native language.

The experience, 'tho brief, almost brought me to tears of joy, though, as I realized that, if even for a brief moment, I became like a child, as Jesus asks of us. What I mean is that for a moment, I checked my rational, adult mind at the door of the church (the rational mind that would remind me that I don't know how to pronounce certain words in German, or that German is not my native language, and I really don't know or understand it) and opened up my heart and soul to praise God in whatever forms that would take.

Through my becoming like a child, the Holy Spirit began to work and allowed that time of singing to be such a time of pure awe and adoration of God that I think it defies explanation in any language.

The Holy Spirit is so ready and willing to work in us, if we would just find the eyes of children so that we could recognize the Holy Spirit and take hold and become absorbed in the moments of our lives.

Connections to Germany

Out of the 82 participants on the tour, there were some like me who had never traveled overseas before; others had been born in Germany, lived there during part of World War II, or had been stationed there with a military spouse.

What drew us to visit Germany? Responses differed somewhat from individual to individual; however, the common thread that came through was the Lutheran/Christian heritage and history of Germany. Many of us have ancestral ties to Germany, but the desire to relate to Lutheran/Christian history was something that all of us could share.

The chance to see where Martin Luther hung his 95 theses, and hence where the Protestant Reformation was born, compelled many of us first-timers to take the plunge into overseas travel, and solidified the desires of those who had lived in Germany to return for a visit.

To step on the cobblestones that Martin and Katharina Luther walked, to worship in the church where Martin Luther was baptized, to see the city where Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the St. Matthew Passion, and to learn about the mystic women of Germany, such as Gertrude of Helfta — how could you pass that up?

To think, too, that just less than 20 years ago, the trip would have been nearly impossible because of the Communist rule of East Germany boggles the mind. I think that all of us sensed the incredible honor we had of visiting places that had felt the weight of Communism for over 40 years of the 20th century!

In Christ,
Laura

Test Your Knowledge

The participants of the Bold Women of the Reformation Tour took two quizzes to test their knowledge of bold women of faith. Would you like to try your hand at either or both?

Answers will be provided later, so stay tuned. The first person to blog back with the most correct answers for each quiz will receive a Lucinda pin.

Bold Women of the Reformation Quiz
1. Ignited by the fervor of the Reformation, this woman (also known as "the German Joan of Arc") helped organize peasants in their rebellion.
2. This woman fueled the business of selling indulgences, which caused Martin Luther and other activists to bring about the Protestant Reformation.
3. When someone called her a "disturber of the peace of the church," this woman of the Reformation said, "I have never mounted the pulpit, but I have done more than any minister in visiting those in misery. Is this disturbing the peace of the church?"
4. When this woman of the Reformation died, her husband said, "I shall not be long in joining her."
5. This bold woman of the Reformation is quoted as saying, "I'm distressed that our princes take the Word of God no more seriously than a cow does a game of chess."
6. As she was dying, this Reformation woman said that she wanted to "cling to Christ like a burr to a dress."
7. This Reformation woman wrote the hymn, "The Only Son from Heaven."
8. She was married to three different reformers during her life.
9. She sneaked Luther's works into her cloister.
10. She tried to convert all of Germany to Lutheranism.

Bold Women of the Bible Quiz
1. Who was the woman who said that she had seen God and lived?
2. Who were the two midwives credited with saving Moses' life?
3. Which widow went to live with her mother-in-law in her mother-in-law's land?
4. Who were the five young women who went to Moses to request that they inherit from their father?
5. Who is the former prostitute who appealed to Joshua to save herself and her family from death, and who then accepted the Jewish faith?
6. What are the names of the two queens who were the wives of King Ahasuerus?
7. Name the female judge mentioned in the Bible.
8. Name the mother of Samuel.
9. This woman was the first woman (other than Mary) to see Jesus as a baby and recognize him as the Messiah.
10. She is referred to as a deacon in the early church.

Good luck!

The Perfect Ending

On Saturday we woke up in Erfurt, which is on the River Gera. It was a nice, summer-like day, so I began my day by dipping my feet in the River Gera. Then, it was on to Wartburg Castle, on the edge of the town of Eisenach.

For those of us who hiked up to the castle (rather than taking the shuttle) and then walked throughout the massive castle, we could understand why it was a good hiding place for Martin Luther.

The Wartburg was founded in 1067 by Ludwig der Springer (the Jumper). (There's an interesting story behind the Jumper, but I'm not going to tell you; I'm going to let you look up that one. :)

From 1211-1228 St. Elizabeth of Hungary lived in the castle, and in 1777 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the castle for five weeks. However, for Lutherans, the crowning event of the castle's history is that Martin Luther hid out there for 10 months (from May of 1521 to March of 1522). While there he was able to translate the New Testament from the original Greek to the German language of the 1500's. By the way, Luther accomplished this in 10 weeks! (It might take some of us 10 weeks just to read and ponder the whole New Testament in English!) This monumental achievement paved the way for the Bible to be translated into thousands of different languages today.

After the castle we went into the town of Eisenach where some of us visited the Luther House, where Martin Luther likely lived during his schooling in Eisenach (from 1498-1501). This charming house had a number of interesting exhibits that gave us a glimpse into what Martin's life as a teenager might have been like. We learned that Martin Luther served as a "kurrende singer" while he was at school in Eisenach, which meant that he literally had to sing for his supper on occasion.

Next was a visit to the Bachhaus in Eisenach, a museum to Johann Sebastian Bach on the land where his childhood home had been. (Bach attended the same school, St. George's School in Eisenach, that Luther had attened 200 years earlier.)

The museum showcased many instruments from the time of Bach. (Bach lived from 1685-1750.) In addition, many original musical scores were on display, and the highlight was a mini-concert on period keyboard instruments, such as a clavichord, harpsichord, and two different styles of organ. We were whisked back into the early 18th century, and through the sheer beauty of Bach's music, were given an appetizer for the main course we'll receive in heaven.

The day ended in Darmstadt, a suburb of Frankfurt, where we celebrated Holy Communion together and said our goodbyes. Or maybe just our so-long's for now. While it is unlikely that all 86 of us (82 Women of the ELCA participants, 2 bus drivers, and 2 tour guides) will ever be in the same room again on earth, we all await heaven, where we will see Martin and Katharina Luther, Johann Sebastian and Anna Barbara and Anna Magdalena Bach, and all the other wonderful, bold people from Lutheran and Christian history!

Amen

To those who have been following our journey

It's Sunday morning, nearly 9 a.m. on April 29. Our pilgrimage is over, and some of our pilgrim throng are already on flights back home. For those who follow things sequentially and chronologically, there is more to come on this blog. We have a few days of posts to place up, most of which won't happen until staff return home. We have invited our participants to add comments and reflections once they return home too, and they may just upload more photos too.

So, we invite you to continue returning to our blog in the next week or two because there will be much more information and many more reflections on this journey.

A brief culinary tour

"I love a place where people eat ice cream before lunch and they're not ashamed about it," said one happy pilgrim. Yes, Germany is a place full of ice cream delights (I had rhubarb ice cream today!), incredible pastries, and incomparable breads. And so, a brief culinary tour.

Here's a perennial favorite: apfelkuchen. I tried a slice in Berlin, while sitting at an outdoor cafe near a riverbank. It was good, but not outstanding. But as you can tell, the presentation was lovely.


On to Wittenberg, where ice cream abounds! My German language skills are not so good (3 years of high school German...that's a long time ago) -- so I thought I had ordered six cookies. Instead, I got six scoops of ice cream. Good thing there were others to help out! Perhaps the tastiest in the bunch was the blueberry buttermilk ice cream seen here on top.


While in Eisleben we had lunch at a lovely hotel where even having a cup of tea was turned into a special occasion. Those at my table took the advice of a nearby table of pilgrims: "the apfelkuchen is divine, the ice cream even better." Always trust a Lutheran woman when she gives pastry and ice cream critiques. Our fellow pilgrims were right on both accounts.

The final stop on this brief culinary tour is Leipzig with the famed Leipziger Lerchen. As the story goes, the people of Leipzig were so fond of shooting larks that the birds were nearly extinct. So the king stopped all hunting of larks and the clever pastry chefs saw an opportunity. They created a pastry to look like a lark. That was back in the mid-1800s and the larks are still popular throughout Leipzig. I found this one at a little cafe in the same passageway as Auerbachs Keller. It is a shortbread-type affair, filled with almond marzipan. It looks more like a muffin than a lark, but my, how tasty it is!

Returning to our opening thought, I love a place where you can have baked pretzels (served as a roll) for breakfast and nobody is ashamed about it! Don't get me started on the great mustards available for those hot pretzels...

More Ways to Be a Christian

Today we went from the serenity of the cloister to the bustle of the city. After exploring the city a little (this is where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and died), we gathered at the parish house of St. Thomas Church to meet Pastor Ulrich Seidel and learn about how the church in East Germany survived the hostile environment of the years under communism — and how it helped change that environment.

This is a story largely unknown to us in the West. It all happened behind the Iron Curtain.

After World War II, as we know, Germany was divided, and Leipzig was in the eastern part. The Marxist government of East Germany (the GDR) was officially atheistic; communism scorned the church as a remnant of the old way of life. The GDR worked assiduously to drive wedges between the people and the faith.

A striking example that Pastor Seidel described for us was confirmation. For many people, confirmation is less a religious ceremony than a simple rite of passage, a time for a party for a young adult. The GDR seized on that to separate people from the life of the church. It created a parallel secular ceremony and ruled that a teen who chose confirmation in the church would not be admitted to university. What would you do?

Many Christians made the compromise. They let their teens be “dedicated” in the secular ceremony so that they could get a good education.

The Marxist government relegated faith to the private sphere, and life within the church was relatively free. The church could teach, publish, and have meetings. A person could live her faith privately, but not publicly — that would be counter-revolutionary, and that was a dangerous thing to be.

In 1961, the Berlin Wall went up. Many professionals — even the doctors at the hospitals — left for the West. Pastors debated: Should they leave too, or should they stay with the people who couldn't leave? The answer was clear: They stayed. It was God's choice, not theirs.

In 1975, people all over Europe were alarmed by a new nuclear arms treaty and began demonstrating for peace. In Leipzig, the activists turned to the church to help shape the movement in a peaceful direction, away from aggression and violence. They were greatly influenced by the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

And so the demonstrations took the form of gathering at the churches to read the Beatitudes and pray for peace. The state taught that the West was the enemy, but the church taught that there were no enemies. Witnesses report that if a demonstrator came into conflict with a police oficer, the whole crowd would chant, "No violence, no violence." People in other cities began to follow the example of the Leipzigers.

By 1989, the East German state was in crisis. The economy was in shambles; the government shaken by scandal and corruption. More and more people came to the Monday evening prayers at St. Nicholas Lutheran Church to pray and then to protest, peacefully. Thousands, then tens of thousands gathered in candlelight procession, always peacefully, to protest injustice and pray for peace.

Pastor Seidel's description of how this came to a head was riveting. He told us that the state declared that these demonstrations were counter-revolutionary. The secret police were always watching, hoping to catch the organizers of the protests — but the prayer meetings were legal, and the demonstrations were spontaneous. There were no organizers to catch. All the churches in the city opened their doors for the Monday prayer meetings, helping to ensure safety, and all the churches were packed with people praying for peace.

In early October of 1989, the GDR ordered an end to the peace prayers. If the churches wouldn't stop them, the police would. Rumors were flying. Fifteen thousand demonstrators marched from downtown to the railroad station and the police drew back — the orders hadn't been written yet. Then came word that two regiments were moving in. Children came home from school to tell their parents to stay home that Monday, because their teachers said there would be shooting. A nurse told Pastor Seidel that the hospitals had been cleared out to make room for the predicted wounded. What would happen?

That Monday night, 70,000 people gathered in and around the churches of Leipzig, praying for peace. They slowly moved with their candles toward the railroad station. And the police disappeared. No order came from Berlin. The crowd went to the headquarters of the secret police. All the windows were dark. Nothing happened. The thousands of peaceful demonstrators stopped there, and then they turned around and went home safely.

Within a few weeks, the government resigned. Elections were held. A month later, the Berlin Wall came down, and the great change began.

Did the hundreds of thousands who had turned to the churches and prayed for peace stay with the practice of the faith? Some did; most didn't. It's hard to undo three generations of atheism. But everywhere we have gone in Germany, we have heard of people's commitment to peace and reconciliation. As Pastor Seidel said, the church isn't the only way to be a Christian.

Spring flowers of Germany

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo

The pilgrims on this journey have been thrilled to the very edges of their souls by the many spring flowers in bloom in eastern Germany. We have seen so many beautiful flowers. This photo, taken on the grounds of the deaconess community in Dresden, captures many spring flowers, a veritable bevy in bloom.

Flowers may beckon towards us, but they speak toward heaven and God. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

White to lavender to deep purple in color, lilacs are blooming everywhere we've been. Their scent is intoxicating. Those seen here were photographed on the grounds of the deaconess community in Dresden.

Perennials have been everywhere, as well. Columbine are just opening. This shot was taken near the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul. ~ Luther Burbank


Pansies appear in many places. This particular photo was taken in Leipzig, around the market square.

The forget-me-nots stand as a true symbol of this trip — so much will not be forgotten. These particular flowers were blooming at the Kloister Helfta, near Eisleben.

A stay at the cloister

While in Eisleben, we stayed two nights just outside town at a Roman Catholic cloister that dates back to the 1200s. The almost 800-year history of Cloister Helfta is a story of death and rebirth, of famous women mystics whose spirits can still be felt in the rhythm of the hours of prayer with the sisters, and of contemporary bold women committed to continuing their way of life and making a viable future for this special place.

On Monday morning, Sister Maria Assumpta Schenkel, the leader of this community of 15 sisters, told us of the history of the place and how they came to be there.

The abbey was founded in 1250 and built between 1250 and 1257. Parts of the walls of the present-day chapel date all the way back to this time. Three famous women mystics of the Middle Ages were among its founders: Gertrude the Great, Mechtild of Hakeborn, and Mechtild of Magdeburg. A famous story about Mechtild of Magdeburg is that she was having doubts about her vocation and was praying in the chapel one day when she saw a great light in one of the windows. In that light she saw the face of Jesus.

In 1525, the Peasant Rebellion forced the closing of the cloister. It was rebuilt in 1530, but then came the Protestant Reformation. In 1542, the new count, George I, pressured the sisters to adopt the Protestant movement. They refused, and left. The cloister's grounds were abandoned and would lie in ruin for several hundred more years.

In 1949, when East Germany was created, the cloister's land became a large farming cooperative. The eventual plan was to tear it all down, but the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 halted those plans.

The cloister reopened through the efforts of a committed group of people who embarked on a campaign to raise money for rebuilding, mostly from the church in western Germany, and who traveled to Bavaria, where they met Sister Maria Assumpta and asked her to come to Helfta. She agreed and, by 1996, six nuns took residence at this deeply historical place.

The stone base of the altar in the historic chapel is constructed of stones that were brought there by each congregation in the area, both Roman Catholic and Lutheran. It is a profound symbol of the ecumen-ical co-operation between the two churches. And it seems nothing short of a miracle, given the history of this place over hundreds of years, that a visitor to the cloister's chapel can still, today, look upon the same 13th-century window in which Mechtild had her vision.

The renovated and restored buildings, and the lovely grounds, make a quiet and serene, retreat-like hotel for visitors to the area. In addition to the hotel, the cloister, as European monasteries have done for centuries, brews its own variety of beer (which many in our group agreed made an excellent accompaniment to our dinner both nights).

I think we all deeply appreciated this restful and restorative place in the middle of our trip. It offered plenty of oppor-tunities for sitting and gazing out over a pond, walking along a quiet path or through the labyrinth, or praying and chanting the daily hours with the sisters.

Sunday in Eisleben

It was just another Sunday for the 82 pilgrims on this tour. We began in worship. We worshipped at the church of Saints Peter and Paul, seen here. This congregation is served by two ELCA pastors, Claudia Bermann and Scott A. Moore (husband and wife). The liturgy, of course, was the same, and many hymns were familiar (Morning Has Broken, Now Thank We All our God, and Abide with Me, among others), although sung in German. We were privileged to witness a baptism of twins, Christian and Oliver, and to welcome them into the family of God. And in the church where Martin Luther was baptized, we shared in the sacrament of Holy Communion, not only in the presence of our German brothers and sisters but also with another group of pilgrims, a group of Taiwanese Lutheran seminarians. It was just another Sunday morning, but it was so much more.


It was here at St. Andrew's that Luther preached his final sermon. In the next photo you see the larger than life statue of Martin Luther in the market square, with the clock tower of St. Andrew's in the background.

In an afternoon session with Pastors Bermann and Moore we discussed the role of women in the German church today. The rolls of most congregations would reflect a 50/50 split between the sexes, Pastor Bermann said, but most of the volunteers are women. At Sts. Peter and Paul, she said, between 80-90% of the volunteers are women. This congregation has several groups of women who come together for Bible study and fellowship. The event that draws the greatest participation of women from the congregation is the observance of World Day of Prayer, something they've been doing for 30 or 40 years.

Interestingly enough, the biggest issue for which Bermann and Moore provide pastoral care is a woman's issue. Women were the first to lose their jobs after reunification. Most women had defined themselves by their work, and now self-esteem issues surface since they have no jobs. They ask, what is my purpose in life?


Eisleben is both the place of Luther's birth in 1483 and also the place of his death in 1546. Long known for its mining industry (Luther's father was a miner here), Eisleben today remains a beautiful town but suffers from significant unemployment. Official and unofficial unemployment numbers vary; we heard upwards of 25% unemployment. The guide on our walking tour half jokingly asked us to encourage U.S. companies to invest in Eisleben's future by bringing jobs to this small town.

Our sabbath day ended quietly back at the Kloister Helfta. You'll read more about the cloister in another post.

The mothers-in-law

We have two mothers-in-law traveling together on this trip, but their story is not at all like the TV sit-com from the 1960s called The Mother-In-Laws. These two women call themselves friends.

Jeannie Haukaas (seen on the right in this picture) is a member of First Lutheran in Baudette, Minnesota. Her son Michael married Susan, the daughter of Marilou Bade, a member of Zion Lutheran in Twin Valley, Minnesota. As soon as Jeannie read about this trip to Lutherland, she signed up. Susan told her mom, Marilou, about the trip and that her mother-in-law was going and urged her own mother to sign up.

And so Jeannie and Marilou have come on this trip together, taking this family togetherness further than it has gone in the past. Sharing Thanksgiving dinner and attending concerts and plays — that's what Jeannie and Marilou have done together in the past. Now they are sharing a room and much more as they travel through eastern Germany.

"We sent the kids a post card," Marilou said. Jeannie chimed in, "we added a p.s. — 'we're having a good time and we're plotting against you!'" Maybe this is a bit like that 1960s sit-com after all.

From Wittenberg to Halle to Helfta

On Saturday, April 21st, the participants in the Women of the ELCA Bold Women of the Reformation Tour began the day in Wittenberg and ended the day in Helfta with a stop in Halle in between.

Personally, I began my day with a 2-hour bike ride around Wittenberg and over to the Elbe River, on the banks of which Wittenberg rests. (I was able to rent a bike from the hotel.) The bike ride was glorious as I sped along cobblestone streets that Martin and Katie Luther and other reformers walked, and when I got to the banks of the Elbe River, I dipped my hand in the water. I said a prayer of thanks for Martin and Katie and others who helped bring about the Reformation. I was in awe at the sheer beauty and wonder of being in this place where Lutheranism began.

After breakfast, our whole group took part in the "Klatsch-und-Tratsch" Gossip Tour. We met and listened in on the gossip of three Wittenberg women (dressed as Katie Luther, Barbara Kranach, and Ophelia). Barbara Kranach was a good friend and mentor of Katie Luther's, and Ophelia was a fictitious woman who brought much humor to the tour and helped link the 16th and 21st centuries for us. This lively gossip tour gave us an insight into what daily life was like for Katie and Barbara and other women in 16th-century Wittenberg, Germany.

After lunch, we traveled to Halle, where we peeked inside the church where George Friedrich Handel was baptized and toured the Francke Foundations. The Francke Foundations were founded 300 years ago by the theologian August Hermann Francke and included an orphanage, a fully structured school system, business and farming enterprises, and academic institutes. Today, the Francke Foundations include valuable museum collections and library, archive, and educational institutions, and over 35 on-site partners. We all enjoyed the breathtaking view of Halle from the roof of the Foundations!

We concluded the day at the Cloister Helfta near Eisleben. There we brought our weary bodies to rest and enjoyed the idyllic countryside and the cloister, with 15 nuns living on-site. Some of us investigated and later walked the outdoor labyrinth.

The day was wonderfully busy in a beautiful, faith-filled way. We experienced the women of the Reformation; the spiritual birthplace of one of Lutheranism's finest musicians; the compassion, ingenuity, and creativity of a Pietist theologian; and the devotion and beauty of a Roman Catholic cloister.

What more could you ask for in one day? I think that Martin and Katie are smiling in heaven.

Who's Traveling? — Mothers & Daughters

Among our 80-some travelers, we have three mother-daughter pairs. We gathered at a cafe in Eisleben to talk about what it's like to travel together to the Lutheran heritage sites that were closed to Western visitors for so long.

Let's meet these traveling moms & daughters — from left to right in the photo are Elise Stueland and Joanne Fitzgerald, Lisa Ruby and Barbara Mayer, and Ina Cohen and Elizabeth Cohen.

Elise Stueland of Scottsdale, Arizona, and her daughter the Rev. Joanne Fitzgerald of Grace Lutheran in Elmwood Park, Illinois, had never traveled together before, and they report that they're having a wonderful time.

Barbara Mayer of West Orange, New Jersey, is a member of Good Shepherd in Florham Park. Her daughter Lisa Ruby lives in Rensselaer, New York, and attends St. Timothy's in North Greenbush. They travel together regularly, and this is Lisa's first trip to Europe.

Ina Cohen and her daughter Elizabeth Cohen, both of St. David's in Massapequa Park, New York, were among the first to sign up for this trip, eager to see the former East Germany and learn more about Lutheran history. Ina says that their congregation (hello, Pastor Meyers!) has many members of German background, and they're eager to hear what Ina and Elizabeth will have to say about the trip.

I asked the women what the most moving experience or sight they'd had on the trip so far, and their answers were as unified and as varied as the women themselves.

Barbara immediately named the service of Holy Communion that we shared at Castle Church, where Martin Luther preached and where he is buried. Joanne was deeply moved by assisting with Holy Communion in the Castle Church where Luther is buried. "Such an honor," she said, blinking back tears. Lisa was moved by seeing and hearing a young woman pastor, the Rev. Dawn Hansen, preaching in the pulpit where Luther himself had preached so often. The service also deeply touched Elizabeth, who was also delighted by the friendliness of the people of Wittenberg and Torgau.

Elise named the Berliner Dom, where we had heard evening prayer. The Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin, with its old tower left broken after World War II and the new church glowing with blue stained glass, was another favorite. Barbara found the scars of war and division in Berlin very moving — and wondered, now that we're all so connected by modern communications, why is there still war? And Ina chimed in, Why not peace?

Before we got up from our table talk, I asked the daughters one more question: What would you like to say to all the women who'll read your words here on this blog?

Elizabeth said, It's good to depend on Mom.

Joanne said, It's more fun to travel with someone you love.

And Lisa said, More mothers and daughters should travel together!

In the news

The city of Wittenberg and its inhabitants are used to visitors, but I guess the visit of 82 Lutheran women and men on a Bold Women of the Reformation tour is news. A reporter from the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung spent Thursday evening of last week at our dinner, interviewing participants and taking in the magnitude of our visit. The reporter had already spent time on the Women of the ELCA web site and the trip blog as well. The resulting article does a great job of portraying our visit and the purpose of our visit. We'll post a translation of the article soon (our friends at the ELCA Wittenberg Center have offered to accomplish that). For now, a translation of the title will have to do: "It's as if we have come home."

Bird's eye view of Martin Luther's Castle Church

“What a moving experience!” was the response of most of the participants on the trip as we discussed what it was like to worship in the Castle Church in Wittenberg where Martin Luther is buried and statues of church scholars and doctors in the faith line the walls. It is like a Lutheran pilgrimage to holy ground. We shared Holy Communion, sang Easter hymns, and closed the service with A Mighty Fortress, of course!

It was chilly in the sanctuary, but the chills that ran up and down my spine were connected to the honor of being asked to preach in the nosebleed-high pulpit above Luther’s grave. Once I regained my balance from that height and was able to calculate somewhat the reverberation of my words, I began to be somewhat more comfortable. As a wandering preacher, I was a little concerned about taking a nose-dive off the pulpit and meeting Luther face-to-face.

The words from Luther’s favorite psalm, 118, and the verse, “I shall not die but live and proclaim the works of the Lord,” provided us a basis to share all we have learned, on this trip and in our lives, about God’s love for us and for humankind.

Showing the BOLD women of the ELCA stripes, staff members rounded out the service with the terrific cantoring of Deb Bogaert, a reading by Audrey Riley, and praying by Linda Post Bushkofsky. Those who attended were truly moved.

Ganz Gut Alle!

Wittenberg @ Dawn

Bold Women in Mission and Ministry in Wittenberg

Today—Thursday—as you have seen, was filled with numerous opportunities to see bold women in action. We visited a variety of social ministries around Wittenberg including a disabilities school, a kindergarten, a soup kitchen, a senior’s center, and an elementary school, hosted by the bold women that lead and work in these facilities.

I visited the elementary school; a private school dedicated to creating successful, creative, non-cookie-cutter children and learning opportunities. The school has classes between 1st and 4th grade with approximately 140 students, and next year hopes to max out at 180 students. The principal started and runs the school funded by a 75-Euro-per-month fee. The church contributes to subsidize the fees. Her biggest concern is working with the regular school system so the children’s education is counted and valued. This school is considered top class as it is a full-day program with after school care, a much needed commodity in a nation that sees both parents working to scrap together a decent living wage after waging a war with communism for years.

The children, as most children everywhere, were boisterous, shy, witty, and straightforward. They sang for us and asked questions, while we mainly gawked. Their English skills outdid our German ones for sure.

Other members of the tour went to other projects and services. One couple stated that their visit to a soup kitchen was very moving despite any language difficulties. They were able to communicate with those who came in for meals.

Another pair talked about their visit to a senior center. The were assured by the residents that living in the united Germany is much better than their previous conditions.

With an afternoon break of a visit to both the City Church and the Schloss Kirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg to hear about Katharina von Bora, Martin Luther, and their contemporaries and friends, we dispersed to shop, eat, visit, meditate, or rest.

The evening followed with a tremendous meal and visit by all the participating agencies and their directors. I was blessed to sit with Sonni, and her translator Dieter, our bus guide. Sonni is a chaplain in the local Wittenberg hospital where she seeks to bring spiritual comfort to people, some of whom knew no spiritual force for years under communist rule. She finds it both a challenge and a blessed ministry. Sonni said that women pastors in Germany are becoming more common but, like their U.S. counterparts, do not always find themselves in regular parish calls.

Trip to Social Service Agency

Guten Tag! Ich heiße Laura Barkenquast. Today those of us on the Bold Women of the Reformation Tour visited different social service agencies in Wittenberg so that we could see how bold women and men of faith in Wittenberg, Germany today are living out that faith.

I visited Augustinus Werk, which is a workshop for handicapped adults. In Germany, the government makes sure that all handicapped persons have an income. The workshop prepares adults for work in the public sector; however, if those in the workshop are unable to find work, then they continue in the workshop until they reach retirement age. In addition to their income from the workshop, they receive a government subsidy.

Those of us who visited Augustinus Werk talked with the director and toured the facility. We observed the sewing, woodworking, windowmaking, and assembly of household products taking place. We had the opportunity to purchase some of the items made by the woodworking department, and many of us took advantage of that opportunity. :)

What struck me the most about the visit was the dedication and determination of those who worked there (both the handicapped participants in the workshop and the non-handicapped supervisors and director). (By the way, I use the term "handicapped," rather than "differently abled" because "handicapped" is the term used in Germany.)

People poured their hearts and souls into doing the best job possible, and they were genuinely very friendly to us Americans looking for an "authentic" experience of Wittenberg, rather than just the traditonal tourist activities.

I think that Martin and Katie Luther and the other reformers would be pleased — pleased with the workshop system that ensures that handicapped people have gainful employment in the workshop and/or in the public sector and pleased that the Bold Women of the Reformation Tour would choose to make this visit.

Martin Luther believed that everyone (not just clergy) received a call from God, and that they should live out that call to the glory of God. No call is better or worse than another. The handicapped people and their supervisors and the director at Augustinus Werk are called to that work. For the morning that some of us on the Bold Women of the Reformation Tour visited Augustinus Werk, we were following our call. There was nowhere else we needed to be that morning.

Auf wiedersehen!

Auf Christus,
Laura

Photos have been added

We've begun adding photos to the photo album -- click on the link at the top of the right hand column on this page. Look through the photos (we hope to add more regularly) and you might just see your mother, daughter, wife, friend, aunt, grandmother or teacher!

What do we really know about Katharina von Bora?

On Wednes-day evening, we attended a lecture at the ELCA Wittenberg Center by Dr. Martin Treu on the life of Katharina von Bora. His presentation focused on the question of just how much we can know with certainty about the wife of Martin Luther, given that in the 16th century women were seen but not heard—there are no written sources from women, only about them—and that what was written down about her gives us only the barest of facts.

From the outline of her life we can "paint in" a picture, but our pictures of her typically reflect the time and culture in which we live. In the 19th century, portraits of Katharina von Bora emphasized that she was a good wife; in the 20th century, we have tended to put a feminist interpretation on what facts we have.

We do know that Frau von Bora came from a family of minor nobility (and in the 16th century, no one other than Martin Luther, especially given her noble descent, would have called her Katharina or Katie). She was married to Luther from 1525 to 1546, and these are the years best documented (though by Luther and his friends and colleagues).

Scholars are not sure whether she could write, given that nothing she might have written has survived and that an inscription attributed to her, in a Bible she gave someone as a gift, has been shown to have been written not by her but by Luther. Because she had been a nun, though, she was able to read. In fact, Luther asked Katharina to read his translation of the Bible. She wasn't particularly interested, so Luther offered her 50 guilders to read it in the winter when there would be little to do in the fields. (Luther's annual salary as a professor would have been 250 guilders).

Typical of minor nobility—proud yet poor—it was easier for von Bora's father to send her off to the convent than to provide a suitable dowry. This gave women two advantages, however: First, they received an education. Second, they lived healthier, longer lives because death during childbirth was so common (the average 16th-century woman lived only to about 33 or 35). So at age 6, Katharina von Bora entered the convent as a student.

We don't know exactly how she became acquainted with Luther's thought, but at Easter 1523, 12 nuns left the convent in a wagon. Three went back to their families; 9 could not (they were essentially out of the family at that point—entering the convent was considered a permanent decision, and, in fact, no one of the von Bora's attended Katharina and Luther's wedding).

In the 16th century, marriage was a business arrangement between families and couples and families hoped that love would come later. With no one to support them and virtually no opportunities available to them, 7 of the nuns were married within a few months (the oldest of them who came to Wittenberg became a schoolteacher in Grimma and was later married). Luther offered Katharina a husband but she declined him—nearly unheard of at the time.

By 1525, most all Protestant pastors were married; those who were not were looked at as possible "crypto-Catholics." So Luther (and for other reasons as well) decided to be married.

In 1527, Katharina established a household in a former monastery. With that much space, she ran a student hostel that became quite a business. She had 20 students living there, farmed land they had acquired, raised cows and pigs, and brewed her own beer (which was important for health reasons—the brewing process killed whatever bacteria was usually in the water supply). She earned almost as much from all of this as Luther earned as a professor.

Luther acknowledged her success in his will in 1542 by appointing her sole heir and guardian of their children—unthinkable at the time and ultimately unenforceable because his will was, essentially, illegal. She needed to have a guardian appointed to her, so she selected a faraway relative. The authorities were not amused, so she appointed Philip Melanchthon, who agreed but also said that she would do as she pleased.

After Luther's death in 1552, Katharina von Bora falls back into the anonymity of women of that time. There are no written sources documenting her death, only a brief obituary by Melanchthon that notes her "special life."

An afternoon in Wittenberg

Walking tours of Wittenberg started after lunch today, with stops at the Castle Church (where Luther is buried) and St. Mary's (where Luther preached and where he married Katharina von Bora). We return to the Castle Church tomorrow morning for a Service of Holy Communion where the Rev. Dawn Hansen, director for programs with Women of the ELCA, will be preaching.


Participants enjoyed free time in Wittenberg after the walking tours. I've seen several women walking around with shopping bags in hand, so it's fair to say we have been supporting the local economy! Wittenberg offers many quaint street scenes, such as this one.



This evening we look forward to a program led by the staff of the ELCA Wittenberg Center. Several local female pastors and layleaders will be joining us for the evening. Check in later to read about that.

Visiting a Protestant kindergarten

This morning we broke into smaller groups, with each group visiting a different social service agency in Wittenberg. My group visited a kindergarten (like a pre-school in the U.S.) where the children greeted us with Easter hymns. This kindergarten is one of four Protestant kindergartens in Wittenberg, and it's associated with a congregation that is relatively new, having been formed sometime before reunification.


The principal talked about the religious education that is offered the children who are mostly 2 to 6 years of age. They hope each year to have at least one child join the congregation through baptism, and the children come to faith through the school. One child was baptized at the Easter Vigil recently and another is to be baptized in June.



We loved the nap room, with bedding for each child, sheep on the walls for counting and a disco ball (purchased by the parents) that helps lull the children to sleep!

The pastor of the supporting congregation, St. Martin's, met with us and described the life of her congregation. It is not remarkably different from many congregations we all know -- Bible studies, special programming for the senior citizens, offering space to groups like AA. She mentioned that in Wittenberg, only 10 percent of the people are members of congre-gations; she also said that in much of western Germany, that figure is only 5 percent. St. Martin's has 1,500 members, but only 50-60 gather regularly for worship. Here's a view of the simple, but lovely worship space at St. Martin's.

Exploring religious connections in Berlin

We pushed off in two red coaches (that would be Reformation red, no doubt) and explored Berlin today.

We began by visiting the Holocaust Mahnmal (Holocaust Memorial), a five-acre memorial consisting of 2,700 concrete pillars of differing heights. While Americans might liken the memorial to a cemetery, that was not the intent of the Jewish German-American architect, Peter Eisenman. With the differing height pillars and walkways that undulate up and down, the visitor can easily become disoriented.

This memorial is near the Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament seen with the waving flags in the background of the Holocaust Mahnmal and the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenberg Gate), the eighteenth century structure that was incorporated into the Berlin Wall following WWII.

Our coaches drove the perimeter of the wall for some distance, and we visited a portion that is still standing as a stark reminder of what was. After a brief stop at Checkpoint Charlie (later in the day we would drive past the lesser known Checkpoint Bravo), we headed to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) for a noon prayer service. Those who understand German heard the pastor reflect on Thomas's unbelief over word of the risen Christ and his need to see Jesus' hands and side. Others marveled at the mosaics in the dome that depict the beatitudes, each mosaic consisting of approximately 500,000 glass stones!

After a brief lunch break at the post-reunification restored Potsdamer Platz, we ended our time in Berlin with a stop at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), a church first built as a memorial to the Emperor Wilhelm I. Having been badly damaged in WWII, its ruins stand as a reminder of the horrors of war. A new church building was built in the late 1950s-early 1960s that incorporates the shattered tower of the original church. The new building includes 20,000 blue glass windows made in Chartres.

Then we were off to Wittenberg, enjoying a nice ride through the German countryside.

A sunny day in Berlin

Tuesday was a beautiful spring day in Berlin--sunny, warm, breezy--so some of your staff members took a little sightseeing expedition.

First we walked down along the beautiful boulevard named Unter den Linden, where dozens of happy Berliners and other tourists were bicycling and strolling in the sunshine along with us. We went west to the majestic Brandenburg Gate, and then through it and across the street into the park named Tiergarten. Before the Wall fell in 1989, we wouldn't have been able to do that at all--it ran just west of the Gate. See how peacemaking has benefits both great and small!

Later, we took a boat ride on the Spree River, which flows through the city. We saw more Berliners sunbathing in the parks on the riverbanks and lounging in the cafes on the shore. A cruise on the Spree brings you amazing views of astonishing architecture--from the centuries-old Berliner Dom (oops! It looks centuries old but it was actually built in 1905. The author regrets the error) to the brand-new sparkling white marble National Art Gallery, shown here (I waved at the construction workers).

And of course after our boat ride we had to stop and nourish ourselves at one of the lovely riverside cafes. Hot pretzels (and other treats!) really do taste better in Germany!

Tomorrow we board our buses and we're off to the ELCA center at Wittenberg, and the real heart of our trip -- the historic sites of the beginning of the Reformation.

A grande mocha by any other name...

Guten morgen! Five of our six staff supporting this tour have arrived in Berlin, enjoyed one night's sleep, and are ready to greet the guests who will be arriving shortly. I've received word so far of only one couple's delay due to the East Coast storms.

I'm just back from exploring the blocks immediately adjacent to our hotel. As you can tell from the photo, I located Starbucks.

The photo also shows that the tragedy at Virginia Tech is headline news here, too, as you can see from the morning paper (it's nearly the only thing that CNN worldwide is reporting, too). We remember all those touched by this tragedy in our prayers here.