Faith Matters - The Archbishop: A German Clergywoman in Sweden
October 31, 2016, saw a special event in the Swedish city of Malmö. The Protestant and Catholic churches jointly celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Pope Francis was in attendance, and...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Germany’s Growing Coptic Church
Anba Damian may be the head of the Coptic Church in Germany - but the bishop is remarkably down-to-earth. Despite the many challenges of his job, he still finds time for a game of football. His seat is...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Five Friends Take Action!
Five friends have developed a satirical YouTube channel. Their videos deal with controversial social issues: Islam and xenophobia. With the world focusing on the differences between religions, they...
View ArticleFaith Matters - To the Greater Glory - Jesuits in Germany
The religious Order founded by St Ignatius Loyola in the sixteenth century has always been controversial. Jesuits spearheaded the Counter-Reformation, played a major role in European politics in the...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Brother Severin and the Lost Music of the Chiquitanos
When Severin Parzinger graduated from high school in 2010, he volunteered for a year of community service with the Divine Word Missionaries in Bolivia. An enthusiastic musician, Parzinger took an audio...
View ArticleFaith Matters - 500 Years After Luther - Reformation on the Road
Seventeen 17 meters long and weighing 33 tons, a "storymobile” will travel around Europe to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Project leader Johannes Göring and his crew of 15...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Pilgrims' Progress - Soldiers at Lourdes
Lourdes in southwest France is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the world. In May each year, thousands of military personnel from almost 50 countries flock to this Marian shrine. The...
View ArticleFaith Matters - In the Spirit of Luther - The Francke Foundations
Some 300 years ago, the Lutheran pastor August Hermann Francke founded a charity school in Halle-on-the-Saale, about 200 kilometers southwest of Berlin. Today that foundation is an impressive complex...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Inter-confessional Churches in Germany - Divided and yet United
An inter-confessional church is one shared by Catholics and Protestants. The Reformation led to 2,000 of these "marriages of convenience”.
View ArticleFaith Matters - Lutheran Archbishop in Russia - An Immense Challenge
Most Russian Lutherans are ethnic Germans. Although services are now conducted in Russian, the "Our Father” is still prayed in the language of Luther. The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Russia has some...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Luther’s Legacy in Namibia - Evangelization and Genocide
As the Lutheran World Federation celebrates 500 years of Protestantism, Namibians remember a grim chapter of their history. Missionaries set sail for the future German colony of South West Africa in...
View ArticleFaith Matters - No Heaven Without Hell
The internationally acclaimed Berlin Radio Choir has joined forces with American theater director and visual artist Robert Wilson for a production that marries Martin Luther’s writings and translations...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Women in the Driving Seat - Revolution at the Vatican
A woman is running the Vatican Museums for the first time in their 500-year history. One year ago, Pope Francis appointed the 56-year-old Italian art historian, Barbara Jatta, to manage the papal...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Monks With a Mission
Four Cistercian monks from Austria are bringing monastic life back to Neuzelle in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. The town's name comes from the Nova Cella abbey that was founded here in 1268....
View ArticleFaith Matters - A Dynamic School - "Bold - Protestant - Tolerant"
The Lutheran School in Berlin doesn’t simply follow a curriculum; it is committed to Christian values. In classes called "Responsibility" and "Challenge," the students at ESBZ learn to act on their own...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Moravians of Suriname
The Moravian Church is one of the oldest Protestant denominations. Since the eighteenth century it has been sending missionaries to many parts of the world. In the former Dutch colony of Suriname, on...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Monks’ Legacy - On Reichenau Island
A thousand years ago, the Benedictine abbey on the island of Reichenau was a center of scholarship. The monks created some of the finest illuminated manuscripts ever produced. But in the early 19th...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Mediaeval Beauty - The World of Uta of Naumburg
Finally declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Naumburg Cathedral is one of Germany’s finest churches - significant not only for its architectural splendor but because it contains a portrait of one of...
View ArticleFaith Matters - goRome! The International Pilgrimage of Altar Servers
"Mega, awesome, cool!" That was twelve-year-old Linus’s comment. He is one of 60,000 Catholic altar servers from across the world who made the pilgrimage to Rome this year to see the pope. With the...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Priests in the Party District - Dominicans in Downtown...
Those looking for a quiet retreat are unlikely to find it in Dusseldorf’s Dominican monastery. The monks there live in the heart of the city’s nightlife district. Their evening prayers are accompanied...
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