Skip to main content

Wittenberg: For the Students Who Were Planning to Travel to Germany with Me


Nineteen Houghton students were supposed to celebrate Easter with me this morning in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany (the church spire is in the background of this postcard view of Wittenberg, with Luther's statue in the town square in the foreground), where Luther is said to have launched the Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses to the church door.

That trip unfortunately did not take place, one of many things to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic.  I hoped that perhaps the church might put its worship services online, but that appears not to be the case.  However, I did find a short clip of some Bible readings, followed by the organist playing Widor, and ending with some prayers.  (The readings and prayers are in German, of course.)  So if any of you students are reading, you can get at least a small glimpse of the church, and can hear the organ.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New History Professor!

I am very excited to announce that the college has hired a new history professor!  Dr. Francesca Silano will be joining our department next fall. Dr. Silano , who has her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, specializes in Imperial and Soviet Russia.  She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Miami of Ohio.  She will strengthen our ability to offer coursework in European and non-Western history. Next fall, in addition to teaching in the general education Humanities sequence, she will offer courses on Russian history and on modern Europe.  We are looking forward to welcoming her to the department.
Post a Comment
Read more

Rabbits and Wrens

I didn't have 15 of them, to be sure.  But when I looked out the front window after getting dressed this morning, I saw not one, but two rabbits out on the front lawn.  They weren't very large, so I assume they were still young.  But I saw them do something I don't think I've ever seen before: play with each other.  They would run toward each other, and then one would hop over the other, bouncing off its back as it sailed over and while they made a kind of squeaking noise.  It was really quite funny. After a minute of that, they stopped and went back to eating dandelions, not fresh yellow ones, but old ones that had gone to seed, the kind you used to blow the heads off when you were a kid.  They bit them off at the base, so that the stems were sticking straight out of their mouths like a straw, with the heads at the end.  And then, phwoosh, in they went, nibbled right up--like a person sucking in a spaghetti noodle.  (Not that any of us would...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Vacation

Let the summer begin!  I finally finished off my grading yesterday.  Now the summer opens up before me. Well, not exactly.  I do have a few random independent study papers hiding in my inbox, which has been overflowing for the past week.  But I can get them taken care of.  And a handful of students still owe me late work, which will come in over the next few days.  I'm also teaching a couple of online courses; the first exams from one of those come in next Monday. At noon today I have a committee meeting, a group pulled together to work on curricular planning for next fall in the face of continuing uncertainty.  And this afternoon all faculty have to attend the first of several Zoom sessions devoted to online teaching, to help us prepare for all eventualities moving forward. Hmmm.... And oh, yes, I just remembered -- rats! -- that today is the deadline for reviewing the department's catalog copy for next year.  There is also that long o...
Post a Comment
Read more