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.
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