Hearing bells ring every 15 minutes our first evening lead us to curiosity. I followed my ears early Saturday morning while the rest of the family slept and found this wonderful and charming old church, just a few blocks from our house.
I encouraged the family to take a Saturday evening walk to Saint G.... Evangelical Church. It is simple and plain compared to the larger churches we had seen in the in the city. Yet is simplicity and magic charmed us.
We delighted in the graveyard, where every grave had a flower garden planted over it. We were so impressed and thought that the flowers bring family and friends regularly to the grave for care taking and to send love to their dear ones.
As we were about to walk home, we met Dorris and her husband Gerhardt. Dorris is some type of caretaker for the church. (which means we did not understand what she said!) She and her husband took us inside the church, turned on the lights and told us the history of the church. Primus Truber, is one of their former pasters and the most famous. He is actually engraved on a coin! He translated 8 Slovenia languages into one, and created and alphabet for the people so they could learn to read the bible, he is known as the "Slovenian Luther." Doris is very proud of this heritage.
We decided to return the next morning for the church service, even though Dorris had the day off and would not be there to welcome us.
We arrived a few minutes before 10, delighted to hear the church bells ringing for all to come and the organ sounding through the door. As we stepped in we discovered we were some of the first to arrive. This surprised us, but little by little others arrived. We later discovered that the service started at 10:15, rather than the 10:00 posted on the sign. Everyone seemed to arrive almost at the last minute and sat in the back of the church. We had found a seat in the middle of the church and so, we were actually sitting in front of almost everyone. Just before the service started the organ stopped playing. I expected silence but instead everyone began speaking to each other. On our way home, Emily told us they were talking about us! They were so loud, she could understand them. They ask "who are they?" "they are definitely not German," "perhaps they are Slovanian!"
The service was full of lovely organ music, which was one of my reasons for attending! Not just hymns but peppy classical pieces. Of course Dan and I understood nothing that was said throuhout the service. The girls picked up bits and pieces. I knew I recognized about 1/4 of the words, even if I could not put them together or remember what they meant. I feel good about this and plan to study this week so that by next Sunday, I have more words to understand. It was more about real life, and being kind.
One of the main focuses of the church is described in the stained glass windows. This is part of what the sermon was about. It takes a bible verse where the fishing net allows the fish to freely swim in and out of the net. The church believes that is how people are, we can go in and out of our spirituality, sometimes in the net, sometimes out....we are free at all times to decide, and are loved regardless of which side of the net we are on. We think this is a healthy view point.
We departed quickly without talking to others, as agreed on, as some in the family preferred not to be sociable that morning.
I look forward to visiting again, chatting with Doris and letting people know that it's true we are not German, nor are we Slovenian. We do have German heritage about 50% on both my side and Dan's (does that make the girls 100%?- ha!)
