Faith Matters - Theologian, Archaeologist, Maverick - Dieter Vieweger
Dieter Vieweger is a Lutheran theologian and an archaeologist. He has been Director-General of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem since 2005. With his infectious enthusiasm for...
View ArticleDeath is Part of Life - A Lutheran’s Quest for Meaning
The Lutheran pastor Nikolaus Schneider held the highest office in the Evangelical Church in Germany, but his life has often been clouded by death. Aged 22, his daughter, Meike, died of leukemia. He...
View ArticleNoonSong – Concert and Church Service in Berlin
NoonSong has been called “thirty minutes of heaven.” A choral concert but also a church service. Every Saturday, NoonSong features beautiful a cappella singing from centuries of sacred Christian music...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Miracle of Flores - The World’s Largest Seminary
The churches of Europe are pretty empty generally. But in Indonesia, with its mainly Muslim population, Christian seminaries are overwhelmed with applicants. On a hill in the middle of the jungle on...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Martin Luther King - A Dream Changes the World
Creative Church, a German Lutheran foundation, has produced another musical for mass choirs: Martin Luther King - A Dream Changes the World. In a series of flashbacks the show sketches the life of the...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Provost in Jerusalem - A Lutheran in the Holy Land
Emissary, pastor and director: Life in the Holy Land is a life full of tension for Wolfgang Schmidt - invigorating, but also exhausting.
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 - ‘Sign of Solidarity’ - A Hospital Ship on the Amazon
The Papa Francisco is the best-equipped hospital ship in Brazil’s Amazon Region. She was launched in August 2019. Her mission is to serve more than 1,000 isolated communities along the world’s longest...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Silent is the Grave - The Changing Landscape of German...
Burial sites in all cultures speak loudly of the prevailing values and beliefs of the societies that design them. Germany’s cemetery culture is unique. But it is currently changing. Many Germans are no...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Helping People Help Themselves - 50 years of Kolping...
It started half a century ago with a campaign to provide vocational training for young Brazilians. Today the Catholic social services association Kolping International is a worldwide network with some...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Female Peacemakers - 50 Years of "Religions for Peace"
Religions for Peace (RfP) is an association of people representing members of diverse religions in more than 100 countries. This independent organization is committed to mediating in religious...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Oberammergau Passion Play - The Plague and Covid-19
The history of the Oberammergau Passion Play reaches back to the seventeenth century, when a plague known as the Black Death swept through Europe. In 1633 the residents of this Bavarian village vowed...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Church Program
Far-right vigilantes have become a familiar sight in many German cities in recent years. They claim to be maintaining law and order, but in reality they are striking fear into the hearts of law-abiding...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Cup and the Covenant - Wine and Catholicism
Wine cultivation is a continuous thread running through both the Jewish and Christian scriptures. No plant is mentioned more times in the Bible than the grape and its products. So it’s hardly...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Different, Amen - Evangelical Youtube Stars
Stefanie and Ellen Radtke are the Youtube stars of Germany’s Lutheran Church. The two female pastors from Eime, in the state of Lower Saxony, are a same-sex couple. With their Youtube channel "Anders...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Eco-Friendly Monks - Plankstetten’s Green Abbey
Running a monastery these days includes having good business sense. Plankstetten Abbey, in Bavaria, has a community of only twelve brothers, but the monastery is thriving. St Benedict’s motto was "Pray...
View ArticleFaith Matters - Pastoral Care - In Spite of Covid
The first acute phase of the pandemic, in March 2020, resulted in a number of tragic deaths in German hospitals and senior citizens’ residences. To prevent new infections all visits from outsiders were...
View ArticleFaith Matters - The Artist Who Saves Churches
The artist Moritz Götze grew up in East Germany, in an atheistic environment. However, shortly after the collapse of communism in 1989 he helped turn a church ruin into a cultural center and conserved...
View ArticleFaith Matters - New Life in Old Walls — Village Churches Bearing Witness to...
Anyone driving through eastern Germany may be surprised by the number of old churches east of the River Elbe. Almost every small village has one. Many of them are fieldstone churches built more than...
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