Sabbatical with Pastor Curtis: A Walk In the Park

Can you say Bucharest? Ah, but can you say it like a Romanian? This is the first of three cities where we will be staying while in Romania. We are just at the beginning of becoming immersed into the Romanian culture. Over the centuries, Romania has been under the rule of the Romans, Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire from Turkey. After Romania was freed from communist rule in the past century, they became a democracy much like the United States, setting up legislative, judicial and exectuive branches of government.

Of course we have only seen just a very small area here in the city of Bucharest. We are so grateful for the Fedder family (LCMS missionary serving here in Bucharest) who have helped us to acclimate to this part of the world. The people here use a currency called "ron" (pronounced "Rhone" as in the river), also referred to as "lei or leu" (pronounced lay). In today's market, every 100 ron is equal to about $22 U.S. dollars. Calculating the cost of something when it comes to shopping and eating at a restaurant is a bit of challenge. Trying to discover the city on our own has also been a challenge since none of the streets follow any kind of grid. The streets run every which way.

Yesterday, as we walked through one of the small parks on our way to eat supper, we ran across the stone historical marker we showed you in yesterday's blog. This was the second of two surprises we talked about yesterday in our blog. We were not expecting to see a monument about Luther and Calvin in the middle of a park in Bucharest.

So why a monument like this? According to my small bit of research the city officials and those who a favor religious tolerence decided that on the occasion of the commemoration of 500 years since the Protestant Reformation began to place a monument somewhere in the city depicting Luther and Calvin, the two great reformers. The monument was placed on the site where the Hungarian Reformed Church was demolished as a gesture of respect. Where the church once stood is now a park. Those in city government want to emphasize that all religious confessions should be free to coexist together in Bucharest after they had experienced difficulties with differences that has led to serious problems in the recent past. The monument was created and placed in the park to promote religious freedom. Enjoy more shots of the monument and a few pictures of other sites around Bucharest.