Luther Talks - Remembrance and the Lutherangarten

How does one mark significant events? Human ceremonies celebrate, remember, observe, commemorate... Some many of our occasions are full of emotion and complexity. 

The Luthergarten was a global project of the Lutheran World Federation to commemorate 500 years of Reformation (2017).  500 trees for 500 years since the Reformation --  In the middle of the tree park the walkway stones make a Luther Rose and the pavilion canopy in the middle is a cross. Trees were planted by member churches and churches of the ecumenical family (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist...). Learn more at www.luthergarten.de

The 500th commemoration was not a rah-rah Luther or Lutheran event. It was a reflective moment by a confession of churches who stood together and proclaimed: salvation, human beings, and creation are not for sale! This was the theme. Grace as God's gift, lived out in our lives, ALIVE.

This picture is a sculpture in the ground of the courtyard of the Parish Kirche, St. Mary's. On the church facade, 4 metres up, there is a carving from 1290 that has Jews depicted as pigs. Rather than removing this ugly history, it was left to cause a person to cringe. The sculpture on the ground was added in 1988 to acknowledge Christian antisemitism as precursor to the Holocaust. An explanatory plaque in German and English is also included in the space. 

On Nov. 9th, 2026 in the evening, community members gathered to remember Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass). The remembrance is a moment to reflect on this dismal chapter of Nazi antisemitism. This sculpture turns to a memorial where the towns people place white stones to remember the lives of Jews and others. The bubbling up 'goo' through the cracks - illustrates that anti-semitism continues to percolate. Hate percolates and can poison a society. This is not be forgotten.

This is the ELCIC tree. Tree is alive!

It is Remembrance Day and I am a Canadian in Germany. 

Remembrance Day  (Nov.11) is important. As a pastor I am a keeper of peoples' stories. I carry the stories of:  WWII veterans, Displaced Persons, German soldiers, occupied peoples, present war refugees, current military personnel, civilians without choice. War takes and takes and takes. War is death: physical, emotional, spiritual, environmental, societal...

And here is Tree. Alive! 

I placed my poppy here in remembrance that after death there can be healing and life.

Poppies grow amid the crosses, row on row.