Take a gander at the Divine Service in the Frauenkirche in Dresden for New Year's Day. . .
If you can look past the fact that it is the EKD, the women clergy, and such, you will see the awesome beauty of the Frauenkirche and will recognize more than you expect from the liturgy itself.
This is simply stunningly beautiful. Thank you for posting. After having watched the total destruction of this church building in the movie "Dresden," it was a delight to see and experience so much of the re-built building.
ReplyDeleteThere also appeared to be parts of the original as well. It looked to me like some of the antique stone carvings had been reused, and there appeared to be a badly damaged processional cross, still in use. How grand!!
I was intrigued by the congregation. They look just exactly like us, although they speak a quite diffferent language. I even saw - twice - a man in the congregation who looks exactly like me!
Thank you for posting this.
Fr.D+
The Frauenkirche is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saxony, which in the 1920s boasted 4.5 million members and was the largest Lutheran church in Germany. Today it is twice the size of the WELS and less than half the size of the LCMS. The EVLKS counts as its symbols the entire Book of Concord. Although a member of the EKD, the Lutheran Landeskirchen do not hold to the Reformed symbols, but merely view them as not fellowship dividing. Curiously, there is no body of Saxon Lutherans that mirror the theology of the LCMS. The ELFK, co-founded and trained by the Missouri Synod since 1876, has now embraced fellowship with the WELS. The SELK, an amalgam of West German and old Prussian independent Lutheran congregations (embracing higher biblical criticism and syncretism) is currently in fellowship with the LCMS.
ReplyDeleteThere is something spine-tingling about sitting in a Lutheran church service in Germany and observing the same songs that are in the LCMS hymnals. You really have to be physically present in Germany to appreciate how the liturgy transcends both the German and the English speaking worlds.
ReplyDeleteELFK? Is the WELS trying to fellowship their way out of extinction one Eastern European church body at a time? There are too many Evangelicals and Calvinists that could be wooed over to Lutheranism. I would rather not see the WELS grow at the expense of the LCMS, or vice-versa.