I’m going to start off with a confession. This was not entirely my idea. Although I had thought about doing something — I didn’t know exactly what — the idea hadn’t completely jelled in my mind until I heard from a reader, Eric Ferrell, who made the suggestion. (Thank you, Eric!) The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Interactive stuff is always interesting and fun and I’m sure there are many members of the clergy out there who would love to tell us about the subject — especially Lutherans.
For those of you non-church people (nothing wrong with that — to each his own — ) the Protestant Reformation was a movement in the 1500s whereby the teaching, practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church were challenged by a Roman Catholic Monk (Martin Luther) who nailed a copy of his complaints to the door of the Catholic Church at Wittenberg, Germany, and turned the religion world upside down. It was said to have happened on Oct. 31, 1517. Thus, this year is the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
In history, Luther’s complaints are called the “Ninety-five Theses” and they detailed his differences with the Catholic church both in practice and Scriptural interpretation. I will leave it to our local pastors to give us more detail on these “theses” which are interesting and worth a listen.
Other members of the religious resistance picked up the ball and ran with it which opened the door for you and me and anybody else today to be a Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or any other denomination we choose, without being condemned as heretics and burned at the stake. Don’t laugh. Many who differed suffered that fate.
I, myself, happen to be a Methodist. It started out by chance and now is by choice. Methodist beliefs fit me and my liberal ways. “Open hearts, open minds, open doors” they say and they mean it.
The initial choice was made by my mom who sent us all to East Point First Methodist Church where she was a member. The choice was made for her by her grandmother, Louisa Elizabeth Boyd Payne, who was the widow of a circuit-riding Methodist preacher.
And so, the tradition carried on until I was a widow in my early 30s and happened upon a serious boyfriend who was a divorced, non-practicing Catholic. We decided to become Lutherans since that seemed to be a reasonable compromise. His mom was not happy about it but the boyfriend was very all right with it. We later parted company, but I remained a Lutheran for nearly 20 years, at different times a member of Christ Our Shepherd in Peachtree City (I’ve known John Weber so long I feel he is a member of my family), Word of God Lutheran in Jonesboro (they had a great youth program for my teenager), and Resurrection Lutheran here in Newnan. I loved the formality and the solemnity of the service — but — I really missed the old toe-tapping hymns I had grown up with.
And so, in 1995, I found Cokes Chapel UMC just around the corner from me, joined, and there I stayed until they went contemporary and stopped singing the old hymns. I absolutely loved the people in the congregation (still do) and have never felt so welcome, but contemporary was just not my thing.
I searched for a more traditional church and settled on Senoia UMC where I am still a member, albeit an inactive one. Over the years, age has taken its toll and I am quite disabled now. I rarely get out of the house. It just takes too much energy.
However, with the miracle they call “Facebook,” I can hear sermons, keep in touch with my church friends and still feel like a member.
But, back to our main topic, the Reformation.
I’d like to invite those members of the local clergy (Fayette and Coweta) who feel like sharing their feelings on the Protestant Reformation to submit a piece on your views — not too long, please — and we’ll run as many as we have room for. If you get too wordy I’ll have to exercise my editorial privilege, and you know what that means. Whack! Sorry.
Email is preferred, as always. Send it to me at [email protected] by Friday at noon for the next Wednesday’s edition. I really look forward to reading your thoughts on the subject.
