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Realm: Religion - Subrealm: Old Catholics
Jan. 9th, 2006 11:31 amYesterday I got up early and went running, in part to find out what the Lutherans were doing that morning. Hm. Alkoholfreies Abendmal. Call me a stick-in-the-mud, call me traditionalist, call me...Anglican, but Eucharist with grape juice--especially if that´s not the normal routine--sounds about as much fun as math homework. "Hm," I said to myself. "Guess I´ll be dropping by the Old Catholics after all."
Digression 1:
Does anyone else reading this (well, aside from people like Grace) even know who the Old Catholics are? Most people in Konstanz probably don´t, especially since their church here is really horrendously bad about posting information on service times and locations. Basically, in the 18th century three bishops in the low countries deected from the Roman Catholic Church over the Jansenist controversy (basically about some crypto-calvinist jesuits); they were followed by a whole bunch more people, (especially in Germany and Switzerland) after Vatican I (1879) defined papal infallibility, etc. They´re now moving toward ordination of women, and as I think Grace put it, "They´ve basically arrived at something pretty much like Anglicanism, only by a completely different route."
Hence why there´s a sign (in English!), noting the fact that there´s full communion between the two churches, inside the rather overdone Rococo building (ok, that´s redundant. And it isn´t actually TOO bad. Used to belong to the Jesuits) which they occupy by the Münster in Konstanz. When the church is open, that is. Which it was, for a change, although the service (led by a layperson, with communion fromt eh reserved sacrament) was actually in the former Sacristy adjoining, now a chapel dedicated te the memory of Heinrich von Wessenberg.
Digression 2: Wessenberg is one of Konstanz´s worthies: he was the last vicar-general of the diocese of Konstanz (i.e. the guy who did most of the actual work of diocesan administration while the Bishop hung out in Meersburg and acted like a secular prince) befor eit was dissolved in the early 19th century. He was a sort of philosophe in a roman catholic sort of way--the sort of persons Stephen Maturin would have liked, had they ever met. Anyway, he was interested in education, and among other things bequeathed his library to the city of Konstanz. It´s currently sitting behind me here in the Uni-Bibliothek as I type this--ironically in a securely locked room, since his collection included a number of medieval manuscripts, inkies usw. usf.
Anyway, there were only about eight people there, and I was actually leading most of the singing, which led to problems when I couldn´t carry the tune on my own...
Thus I found myself afterwards sitting around with a bunch of (mostly old) Old Catholics, discussing local Green Party politics, the problems of being an extremely small congregation (e.g., lack of an organist to provide help and accompanyment for hymns), and how one ceases to be an extremely small congregation. One thing they ARE doing right is coffee hour. Perhaps this is just because Kaffee und Kuchen is such a fundamental part of the German lifestyle (though I haven´t noticed the Münster or the Lutherkirche doing anytrhing in this direction). Or possibly it´s just that someone had an enormous Christmas cake sitting around.
Meantime, today my Middle High German Professor failed to show up for lecture. Possibly her plane was delayed; possibly she sick; but I´m irrepressibly reminded of that time I showed up for the first session of a Roman de la Rose class that Howard Bloch had thought he´d scheduled for the following day, with the result that we nearly went to the pub before we persuaded Scott to call his mentor a one last time. In retrospect, I think we should have hit the pub. Alas, there are no pubs within walking distance of the Uni here, so I went to the library instead.
Digression 1:
Does anyone else reading this (well, aside from people like Grace) even know who the Old Catholics are? Most people in Konstanz probably don´t, especially since their church here is really horrendously bad about posting information on service times and locations. Basically, in the 18th century three bishops in the low countries deected from the Roman Catholic Church over the Jansenist controversy (basically about some crypto-calvinist jesuits); they were followed by a whole bunch more people, (especially in Germany and Switzerland) after Vatican I (1879) defined papal infallibility, etc. They´re now moving toward ordination of women, and as I think Grace put it, "They´ve basically arrived at something pretty much like Anglicanism, only by a completely different route."
Hence why there´s a sign (in English!), noting the fact that there´s full communion between the two churches, inside the rather overdone Rococo building (ok, that´s redundant. And it isn´t actually TOO bad. Used to belong to the Jesuits) which they occupy by the Münster in Konstanz. When the church is open, that is. Which it was, for a change, although the service (led by a layperson, with communion fromt eh reserved sacrament) was actually in the former Sacristy adjoining, now a chapel dedicated te the memory of Heinrich von Wessenberg.
Digression 2: Wessenberg is one of Konstanz´s worthies: he was the last vicar-general of the diocese of Konstanz (i.e. the guy who did most of the actual work of diocesan administration while the Bishop hung out in Meersburg and acted like a secular prince) befor eit was dissolved in the early 19th century. He was a sort of philosophe in a roman catholic sort of way--the sort of persons Stephen Maturin would have liked, had they ever met. Anyway, he was interested in education, and among other things bequeathed his library to the city of Konstanz. It´s currently sitting behind me here in the Uni-Bibliothek as I type this--ironically in a securely locked room, since his collection included a number of medieval manuscripts, inkies usw. usf.
Anyway, there were only about eight people there, and I was actually leading most of the singing, which led to problems when I couldn´t carry the tune on my own...
Thus I found myself afterwards sitting around with a bunch of (mostly old) Old Catholics, discussing local Green Party politics, the problems of being an extremely small congregation (e.g., lack of an organist to provide help and accompanyment for hymns), and how one ceases to be an extremely small congregation. One thing they ARE doing right is coffee hour. Perhaps this is just because Kaffee und Kuchen is such a fundamental part of the German lifestyle (though I haven´t noticed the Münster or the Lutherkirche doing anytrhing in this direction). Or possibly it´s just that someone had an enormous Christmas cake sitting around.
Meantime, today my Middle High German Professor failed to show up for lecture. Possibly her plane was delayed; possibly she sick; but I´m irrepressibly reminded of that time I showed up for the first session of a Roman de la Rose class that Howard Bloch had thought he´d scheduled for the following day, with the result that we nearly went to the pub before we persuaded Scott to call his mentor a one last time. In retrospect, I think we should have hit the pub. Alas, there are no pubs within walking distance of the Uni here, so I went to the library instead.
