European church leaders celebrate Reformer Johannes Bugenhagen

|PIC1|Church leaders from Europe, German political leaders and academicians, were among hundreds of people who mid-September participated in the 450th anniversary of Johannes Bugenhagen's death.

"The Evangelical Church of Pomerania owes the Reformation to Johannes Bugenhagen," said Bishop Dr Hans-Juergen Abromeit in his sermon during the Sunday worship anniversary in Greifswald's St Nicholas Cathedral. "It is no exaggeration to say that the political and ecclesiastical landscape of Northern Germany and Northern Europe today would look different without Bugenhagen,"
Abromeit told the over 500 worshippers who included participants in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) 11 - 16 September European Church Leadership Consultation in Greifswald.

Bugenhagen was born in 1485 in Wollin, Pomerania and was for many years a respected school headmaster in Treptow (Pomerania, today in Poland). As of 1520 he got to know Luther's writings, became his friend and counselor, and then took over the Wittenberg city parish. According to Abromeit, the theologian whom Martin Luther called the "Bishop of the Reformation" performed "at least 1,470 ordinations of pastors" in Wittenberg alone.

Abromeit explained Bugenhagen's work on church order, which the reformer understood as the "ministry of [an] evangelist", notably in Brunswick, Lubeck, Hamburg, Schleswig, Holstein, Denmark and Pomerania. He noted the reformer emphasised the responsibility of church leadership as "primarily preaching the gospel and celebrating worship ... [as] that is where the heart of the church
beats."

With reference to the planned merger of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Mecklenburg, North Elbia and Pomerania, Abromeit said it would be of benefit if some of these German churches unite in a church of the North.


Realist

In his tribute, Munich Bishop Dr Johannes Friedrich pointed out that Bugenhagen, unlike the visionary Martin Luther, had been the realist among the reformers. Bugenhagen "did not write any revolutionary, programmatic documents like his close friend Luther," said Friedrich, chairperson of the LWF German National Committee. "His most significant merit is considered to be the painstaking, detailed drafting of Protestant church constitutions ('orders') in which the theological insights and goals of the Reformers were translated into a form suitable for practical
implementation," he added.

According to Friedrich, Bugenhagen was preoccupied with the answer to the question, 'What should I as a Christian do concretely?'

"The modern forms of positive thinking that are so popular today-the endeavor to
succeed by presenting oneself in good light, the planning of one's life in the certainty that it is feasible, together with the related exaggerated opinions of the self-would have seemed extremely strange to him," said Friedrich.

Bishop Dr Christoph Klein, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania said, "Until we received our own Protestant bishop in 1533, Bugenhagen ordained the pastors of our Lutheran church in Transylvania, and was thus a kind of bishop for our clerics at the time."

Klein pointed out that Bugenhagen's connections with churches beyond Pomerania and Central Europe nearly 500 years ago, demonstrated the lively exchange within Europe long before the accession of numerous Central and Eastern European countries to the European Union.

"May Bugenhagen's efforts to this extent remain an encouraging inspiration for our commitment to the greater Lutheran church worldwide," added Klein, LWF vice-president for Central Eastern Europe.

Erwin Sellering, the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania minister for health and social affairs and designate-premier, praised Martin Luther and his fellow reformers for their message of "courage to change," which is still relevant in view of today's challenges
at local, national and global levels.

The dean of the Theological Faculty of Greifswald's Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Professor Michael Herbst, spoke of Bugenhagen's commitment to education and Bible scholarship. He mentioned the Bugenhagen monument near the university, which depicts Bugenhagen with an opened Bible on his knees, his gaze focused on the main building.