Musings of a Flemish Lutheran in an Exciting World
28-12-2012
I'm a Lutheran. You're a what now??!!
That would
be a likely response in Flanders, even when denoting myself more generally as
'Protestant'.
Protestantism to most, though admittedly a dwindling majority, is a 'foreign'
religion, often German, mostly Dutch, or sometimes even those crazy people in
America who talk funny about sex and guns. A home-grown Flemish Protestant is a rare thing indeed.
Never mind that during the Reformation era, most of Flanders was in fact
Protestant; was, the Spanish Habsburgs saw to that rather quickly and viciously (Duke of Alva).
Most Protestants, 1 à 1,5 % of the Belgian population, are of Calvinist or
Evangelical stock. There are only a handful Anglicans and Lutherans around.
Apart from the expat Scandinavian Seamen's Churches, Flanders only has one -1!-
'native' Flemish-speaking Lutheran congregation, in Antwerp. I reside in Ghent,
so that's why the Anglicans in that city get my custom, among other reasons, but
I digress.
So why Lutheran? Because as a Lutheran I belong to that great human family and
faith called Christianity, albeit in a specific and organised way.
No, the Lutheran Church was not founded by Luther in the 16th century,
neither were the RCC and Orthodox founded by Christ Himself! In fact, Luther
discouraged the use of the name 'Luther(i)an', given by his opponents, instead
he preferred 'Christian' or in German 'evangelisch'
(which translates in English as 'evangelical', which I realise just confuses
people). If Christians of a certain -let's say- 'style' call themselves
Lutheran it is in fact because they are wearing a swear-word as a badge of
honour.
But because people like labels, and because of practical theological reasons, I
shall stick to the denominational classification.
Lutheranism has always declared itself an heir of the Early Church, hence the
Ecumenical Creeds; it's connected to millennia of Christian witness. It is not something new, it is something renewed. True,
there are the Lutheran Confessions that specifically lay out the interpretation
of Scripture and Faith as seen through Lutheran eyes, but even they build on
earlier writings and traditions.
I love Christianity and the way of expressing that love and belonging according
to the Lutheran 'style' comes most natural to me. The RCC and the Orthodox have
too much bagage for my taste and although I feel very much at home in
Anglicanism, Lutheranism is my home.
Just to clarify, I belong to a majority branch of the Lutheran 'tradition', a
LWF-Lutheranism if you will. It is a very down-to-earth, Continental European
'brand' of Lutheranism with for example female ordination and a few of the other
'hot taboos' (but I'll keep those for possible future blogs).
It is the deep reverence and love for Scripture that draws me to Lutheranism; the study, the exegesis, the exciting adventure that is the Bible. The Bible as our guide, the Bible as... God's prayer to His world.
It is also an attitude towards faith, religion and by extension the world we
live in, that I find fascinating, logical and applicable and to which I feel most akin; every single day we
get the reaffirmed truth of God's love and grace for His creation, and every
single day we as Christians look at how we experience and express this.
We cannot take it for granted, we cannot take anything for granted! To me it is
a 'type' of Christianity engaged in a constant return into the past, a constant affirmation of trust for the present, and constant renewal
towards the future. Ecclesia semper reformanda.
This is most visible in the variety of Lutheran expressions; after all, in many ways Lutherans don't believe what they pray, but pray
what they believe. Any half-decent Lutheran liturgy book should -ideally!- at
the very least include the Small Catechism, the basics of Lutheranism 1-0-1, if
you will, even if that same liturgy book contains half a dozen different
settings for the same religious service. As such we might call Holy Communion
'eucharist' or 'mass' or just plain 'communion', fact is all Lutherans believe
-at least in theory- in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Elements, i.e.
that Baby Jesus is really in the bread and wine. That's of course just one
example of many.
This makes for a colourful array of being Church, while standing and building
on the shared faith and heritage the 16th century Reformers traced back even
further to the Patristics and Apostles.
Whether you're the official State
Religion or just a minority within a minority, that international and historical connection,
through that shared faith and doctrine, that mutual recognition of theological jargon, the shared hymns, that
insider debate on the Confessions and ministry, the differences in hierarchy with or without
bishops/superintendents, the Bible studies, all based on the same solas, that makes
me -and proudly so- a Lutheran!
ps: The Ecumenical Creeds are the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the
Athanasian Creed; The Lutheran Confessions are collected in the Book of Concord
(1580); Ecclesia semper reformanda:
"the Church need constant renewal/ the Church needs to be reformed constantly";
The Small Catechism was written by Luther and published in 1529; 'Eucharist'
comes from the Greek 'eucharisto', 'to give thanks'; 'Mass' comes from the
final blessing in the Latin service "ite, missa est", "go, it
has been completed"; The 3 basic solas are: sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide (by Scripture, grace and faith alone).
Well,
there's a first time for everything, even for a blog.
It was actually my cousin, Kim, who gave me the idea; she had a blog while
doing her journalism placement in India and so I thought to myself "You'll
be starting your placement in Liverpool soon, how about your own blog?"
So here it is... my first time... blogging.
Liverpool will not be my first time living abroad -I lived in London for 4
years and Dublin for 7 months- and it will not be my first time active in a
parish, a group of people calling themselves Christians and coming together
around the Christ-figure and His life and message to the world. I've been
involved in the local Anglican parish in Ghent (Saint John's)
as a lay assistant for years.
But it will be the first time I move abroad to actively take up a specific
'official' role in a parish after obtaining my theology degree and applying
formally for ordination. Somehow it all has become much more serious now, and
to be honest I'm glad, even relieved; finally something is happening.
I'm also glad and relieved that I didn't rush into a theology programme
immediately after secondary school, that I studied Art History and Middle
Eastern studies before signing up for a 'course on God'. Luckily I had met a
pastor who recognised the zeal of the convert (I was raised an Atheist) when he
saw one and gave me the good advice to "let any potential call sink
in". Gaining experiences was very important he said, after all how could
anyone become a minister, when they're a wall flower that has ever left their
own patch and never met a whole array of people walking on God's green earth?
So I read other subjects first, both in Ghent and London, and worked and
travelled a more, before finally deciding that the opportune moment had arrived
for me to enroll at the Protestant Faculty in Brussels. And so since September
of this year, I'm allowed to call myself an 'MTh', all signed by the dean and
stamped by the secretary. It had taken me 5 years part-time, with ups and
downs, and it took until the moment I handed in my dissertation (on Anglicans
and Lutherans in Israel-Palestine), that I knew I had made the right decision;
come what may, I would have that diploma on my wall!
Even if it meant never touching a Bible again... which as a Lutheran is highly
unlikely!
I jobbed here and there, customer service -so I do have some idea of what makes people tick- and even teaching, religion for the Anglican community in Flemish official schools.
And thus, I visited other places -very few career options for future
Lutheran pastors in mostly RC Flanders- and was greeted very warmly at the Nordic
Church in Liverpool, where it became evident during the course of a lovely
weekend there, that I might just fit in to give it a go. So we agreed on a
trial period of 3 months... meantime the Lutheran Church in Great Britain has
ample opportunity to scrutinize my application for ordination... and then...
I 'leave behind' a loving partner and a cheeky cat, but I've been blessed with
a relationship of dialogue and humour ("Liverpool? Fun! Another holiday
address!"), so I'm confident that the 3 months (starting on 3rd January)
will bring more clarity and certitude on how I fit in God's plan for that
congregation and my own calling to the ministry. It will again be a joined
enterprise with the local CofE priest -I feel a pattern emerging- and I am
excited... very excited... the sort of very excited that makes you a little
nervous and anxious... you know the feeling, the kind of feeling when you are
excited and then scared it might be too good to be true.
Then I take a deep breath and say to myself "If it wasn't meant to be,
they wouldn't have asked you to get on an aeroplane -grief, I hate flying!-
come over and work with them. After all it's a first for this congregation as well!
So 3 months of Liverpool, here I come!
But first we'll get through the holidays, and the packing, and o yes, I need to
fill out forms for the bank and the health insurance as well, and trying to put up this blog properly... for the first time.
I was born and raised in Flanders (northern Belgium) and became actively interested in religion at the age of 15. I was baptised Reformed, confirmed Lutheran while studying in London, and worshipped with an Anglican congregation in my beloved city of Ghent. These are my thoughts and experiences connected to life and religion, theology and parish life, and ordained ministry.
