Reflections as we prepare for the big walk.
Older posts Newer postsAnd Miles to Go Before I Sleep
Determined to get an earlier start yesterday than the day before, we got out of the cabin we shared with the mouse by 8:30 and hit the road. We once again had the good directions of the Harland family, though … Continue reading
The Almost-Luther Day
We have dubbed today the Almost-Luther Day, because at 39km we fell a trifle short of the 42km average he is supposed to have walked on his southward journey. (Much of the day was spent along the Rennsteig, a very … Continue reading
Slugs and Slate
We couldn’t figure out the internet connection last night (only got our Tweets out by phone) and though the campground proprietor promised to check in on us at the bungalow he never did—perhaps he was put off by the deluge … Continue reading
Here I Walk at the Wall Street Journal
Another article about our pilgrimage! Take a look at today’s “Houses of Worship” column in the Wall Street Journal to read “Walking 1,000 Miles in the Footsteps of Martin Luther.”
Here I Walk on First Things
Our sponsor First Things is featuring an article on our pilgrimage on the website today, “Here I Walk, I Cannot Do Otherwise.” Click over and take a look!
Companions for the Journey
“Well begun is half done,” as the expression goes (and is particularly comforting when contemplating a thousand-mile journey on foot). And we are looking forward to a marvelous beginning of our pilgrimage. Saturday we’ll be traveling to Erfurt and spending … Continue reading
Scenic Trails and Pilgrims’ Routes
I grew up hiking in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Roads and buildings are relatively new in my home state of Washington. A few date back a hundred years. Most were constructed in the last fifty. And so when you go to the woods, you get away from civilization. There really isn’t much of a choice, and we generally don’t mind it that way. Continue reading
Where Does It All End?
A reader asked recently about our destination. Obviously it’s Rome, but earlier we emphasized that getting to the destination is not the principal goal of a pilgrimage—otherwise we, at least, could skip the 1000 mile slog on foot and take … Continue reading
After the Apology
I can say already that I will be proud for the rest of my life that I was able to take part in the action of the LWF today in repenting of the sins of the past against the Anabaptists. … Continue reading
In Other Ecumenical News…
We’re focusing on the Lutheran-Roman Catholic conflict of the 16th century in our forthcoming pilgrimage (only 30 days away!!), but obviously enough there was quite a lot of other stuff going in Reformation-era Europe. One of the many tragic eruptions … Continue reading
Preparing to Pilgrim
The countdown ticker over on the right is relentlessly marching forward. At the Institute we are gearing up for our annual Summer Seminar—this year is Seminar #44—on the very cool theme of “Mission and Ecumenism in the Global Village: One … Continue reading
Confessions of a Reluctant Ecumenist
It seems only fair to tell you that I started out not being at all enthusiastic about ecumenism. This was not because I doubted the true Christian-ness of other Christians. That was never particularly a problem for me. It was the concerted efforts that made up ecumenism, and quite often ecumenical enthusiasts themselves, that deterred me. Continue reading
How Many Steps?
Ecumenism sometimes really feels like dreaming the impossible dream. Christianity is so fragmented and has been that way for so long. A hundred years of hard work sometimes seems to have brought us little closer to the goal of restored Christian unity. So many wounds to be healed, so many disputes to be resolved, so many sins to be confessed and forgiven… But we all know that what is impossible for humans is possible for God. And sometimes what looks impossible to humans at first glance is not that impossible after all. Just out of curiosity, I decided to calculate how many steps it takes to get from Erfurt to Rome. The journey itself is, according to our best estimates, 1732 kilometers (or 1076 miles—sounds more impressive in kilometers). The average number of steps in one kilometer is 1320. Multiply the two figures and you get a whopping 2,286,240 steps. 2.286 million! My feet hurt already. Continue reading
Martin Luther in 1510
Martin Luther in 1510 is an intriguing figure. Here we have a theologian who belongs to both of our churches, and as such is unsettling to both of our perceptions of who and what we are. Scholars on both sides have tried to manage this Luther. Some on the Lutheran side have liked to emphasize his “Reformation breakthrough” to an extreme degree. There is supposed to be an absolute, abject break with his past, a lightning-bolt discovery of the true but long obscured gospel, a relentless rejection of all that came before—you see this even in certain kinds of paintings of Luther, where he hammers the 95 Theses to the door of the church with a strident certainty. This is the ultra-Protestant Luther who has no use for Rome, the Catholic church, or pretty much anything that came before him. Continue reading
The Space In-Between
When we tell people about this pilgrimage, of necessity we have to say that we’re going from Erfurt to Rome. But that turns out to be a strangely misleading statement. The thing about a pilgrimage is that you spend the least amount of time at your beginning and ending points. The bulk of the trip, the substance of it, the trip part of the trip, is all the time you spend in-between. Continue reading
