29 May 2010

Another Glimpse Beyond Babel

Here is a Lutheran Divine Service in Germany.  What a beautiful Church!  This Divine Service was celebrating the Name of Jesus - New Year's.  And yes, that is incense.  Fancy that.  Note also the reverencing of the altar and how at the Gloria Patri, a profound bow until "as it was in the beginning..."  Yeah, all that ceremonial stuff is SOOOOOOO unLutheran..... NOT.

11 comments:

Tapani Simojoki said...

Here's another one for your collection: the recent consecration of a assistant bishop Matti Väisänen for the Mission Province's Finnish congregations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cT8ut1gvlU

William Weedon said...

Wonderful, Pr. Simojoki! Thanks!!!

Phil said...

Wonderful. And ad orientem, no less (for the German and Swedish ones).

I suppose it is typical of the locally dominant traditions: vested deacon and subdeacon in Sweden (High Mass) and servers in cassock and surplice in Germany (Sung Mass).

William Weedon said...

Phil,

Indeed - and did you get to watch the Finnish service too? Really great stuff all the way round.

Phil said...

By the way, look closely and you'll see votive candles.

Bethany said...

State church or SELK? Just curious.

Bethany

William Weedon said...

I was assuming SELK since the word "Lutheran" and not "Evangelical" was used?

joel in ga said...

Anybody know which goes more deeply into church history, reverencing the altar or bowing to the East? Somewhere St Basil wrote, "Thus we all look to the East at our prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East." In my limited reading of the Fathers, I have not come across anything about reverencing the altar per se.

Anonymous said...

I dug a little bit about this church and managed to find the following:

This service was recorded at the Priory of St. Wigbert, which is apparently a ecumenical Benedictine monastery that belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia, a member of the EKD.

Thus, it appears to be a member of the state church and not the SELK. You can find the information at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priory_of_St._Wigbert
http://www.wigberti.de/ (German)

Hope this helps!

mlorfeld said...

This is also part of the "Lutheran Benedictines". Father Schwarz is the prior of the Fraternity of St. Wigberti.

mlorfeld said...

The sermon from the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75q1E6ObWQE