Friends in faith

CELINA - Almost 500 years ago, Martin Luther raised objections to some Catholic Church practices, sparking a reformation that resulted in the birth of the Lutheran Church.

From one church came two, and relations between the sides haven't always been smooth.

As the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation nears, many on both aisles see an opportunity to come together in ecumenical discussions.

The melting of the ice between Catholics and Lutherans is happening worldwide; Pope Francis traveled Monday to Sweden, an overwhelmingly Lutheran nation, to kick off a yearlong commemoration of the Reformation.

In Celina, this is happening with the Rev. Ken Schnipke, C.PP.S., of Immaculate Conception and the Rev. Dr. Jeffery Gramza of St. John Lutheran Church urging understanding.

After trading pulpits for the weekend, the clergymen led the first of at least three discussion sessions between the two congregations, commemorating the split and looking to foster a sense of family.

"My hope is just to have better understanding that people who have another faith tradition just don't seem like strangers, and we're not strangers, we are friends in faith, and we can help each other know about our different faiths and appreciate the beauty of our traditions," Schnipke said.

On Thursday night about 100 people came to Immaculate Conception to talk about their different and shared faiths.

"Great turnout. Excellent turnout. We were thinking we'd be happy with about 40, and we had about 100. The rough count was about 40 Lutherans and 60 Catholics. So that was a good balance, I thought too," Gramza said.

"We thought we'd fit into half the room, but it took the whole room. It was a good sign that, I think, people are ready for this," Schnipke added.

Locally, members of Celina's Immaculate Conception and St. Teresa Church in Rockford are mixing with St. John Lutheran (the Purple Door Church) in Celina. Attendees sat and talked Thursday about their common beliefs. Some recognize the importance of these historic conversations.

One participant urged his fellow believers, "We're Christians first of all, and we Christians better get our acts together. We have some world challenges out there. Christians, unite. Pray together."

"When I was over at St. John's over the weekend, one of the ladies came up and she said, 'My mom waited her whole life to see this, and she never did,'" Schnipke said. "So now, it's something that the next generation can do. It's good for people that, we really want to have people feel safe and comfortable sharing about their faith and asking questions. It felt very comfortable. It was good to see people mixing with each other, too, from different faiths and making some new friends, but I think there's a lot of commonalities between people."

The groups related stories of growing up on one or the other side of the divide, with words from a handful of couples who began married life in different churches. The unity continued when the two men of God swapped pulpits over the weekend.

"We, as a small community, began this on Sunday when we did the pulpit swap," Gramza said. "I have heard from Father that he was warmly welcomed, and I know that talking to the people of my congregation, they were just delighted by the experience. They very much enjoyed having him. And what that represented that a Catholic priest was preaching God's word to them on Reformation Sunday, and then my experience at IC was just phenomenal. We do have a close community of Lutherans and Catholics, so it's important, I think, for our churches to do this."

The conversations between the local congregations began with an effort that took hold around Wapakoneta, and the challenge of coming closer was picked up by St. John and IC.

"We've been looking at how best to help people see the commonalities and to recognize we're not that different from each other," Schnipke stated. "There are things that are unique about our traditions. We also need to respect those and understand those. But also there are things we share in common, and I guess that was our hope. It's a blessing that we really do see that in people where they're interacting with one another."

"I think for a lot of Lutherans and Catholics, this has sort of been a dream that they never thought would ever come true," Gramza observed.

Up next week is another discussion session, this time centering on the figure at the center of the reformation, Martin Luther. That will be from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday at St. John.

"The ultimate goal, I think, is that the two churches begin to see that we have more in common than not. Because we are, of all the churches, in terms of theology, in terms of worship practices, we're the two closest bodies. And to see that there is a oneness to us, that we're all baptized in the same waters. But also to see that IC does wonderful ministries with hunger and poverty that our church does as well. How much more can we do if we are working together on justice issues, on poverty issues?" Gramza said.