Today we attended the 10 am Sunday worship service at Castle Church, Wittenberg. The church building is massive. The congregation is tiny, at just over a hundred members, the majority of whom seem older than 50-years. The service was in German, but the liturgy was familiar. The church is the resting place of the corpses …
Did the reformation succeed in the city where it began? Read More »
Yesterday, we visited Hartenfels Castle in Torgau. It is now used by the government as an administrative building. It used to be the seat of “Elector John Frederick the Magnanimous.” In the 16th century, a church was built in it – designed intentionally to be “evangelical,” the watch-word of the Reformation. The design has a …
How did Luther design the first protestant church building? Read More »
We touched a metal plaque placed in the ground just before we left the Buchenwald memorial. The ambient temperature was 14 degrees Celsius. There was a light breeze. The guide asked us why the plaque was warm. We didn’t know. After listening to our silence, he told us there was a heating system below the …
Lutherans don’t make pilgrimage. But if they did, one of the sites on their list would be the room in which Martin Luther, in 1522, translated the New Testament portion of the Bible from Greek into German. The room is in on a hilltop, in a castle. The castle is managed by a foundation which …
Mission EineWelt (One World Mission) is the centre for partnership, development, and mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. It conducts “mission” activities both within and outside Germany. I put “mission” in parentheses because it’s not just about proclaiming the gospel. It’s about apprehending God’s goals for the world, the current state of the …
28 of us sat for about four hours in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), nodding off on unfriendly seats, waiting for our flight to depart at 2:25 am on Monday morning. The captain of one of the two Airbus 380 planes told us the crew comprised 18 nationalities. I added that piece of trivia …
What does faith have to do with public policy and politics? My “insider experience” of Christian faith spans four denominations, nine congregations, 45 years. For the first 30 years, I kept my faith personal, or within the churches of which I was a member. After the Hindraf and Bersih rallies in 2007 which contested public …
If you could discuss gender with a person who professes an “alternative gender,” would your views on gender change? I put myself to the test. But not by discussing with a real-life person. (I am in circles which includes alternative gender persons.) Because that would take too long, would be too scattered, and too hard …
Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality Read More »
To-date, I’ve avoided discussing transgender[1] persons. Why? Because I prefer not to write on subjects about which I don’t have firm opinions. But today, I feel compelled to write about transgender persons. Below, I’ll explain why. I wish to speak calmly through a long essay, rather than through short bursts which quickly deteriorate into battles …
What do you think of transgender persons? Six theses. Read More »
Yesterday I preached the Sunday sermon. One member kindly told me it was too subtle. On reflection, I agree. Here, I’ll try to be more explicit. I titled my sermon “Real life leaders.” I spun the title from the text, from news headlines, and from my soul. Choosing a title is difficult. I rejected many …
