Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Roman Orthodox and Confessional Lutheran Churches

Down the street from where we are staying is the St. Elijah Romanian Orthodox Church.  The name of this suburb is named after the church. This is the church that was used by the Lutheran pastor to conduct the funeral service for Sebastian Bangs, the son of Lorisa and Jesse Bangs, friends who are hosting us here in Suceava.  Sebi is the young boy whom I mentioned in yesterday's blog who died tragically in a swimming pool drowning.  After visiting the church site, we went up the hill from the church to the Orthodox cemetery where Sebi was buried to visit his grave site.  

In the afternoon, we went with Pastor Traian Nicolescu to see his church.  His congregation is using the building that belongs to the German Lutheran Church body in Romania that has not been in use due to the Germans moving out of the area and out of Romania.  It has been a blessing for them to use the building given the fact that the German Lutheran Church is not fond of the new Confessional Lutheran Church in Romania.  But since no one is using the building, they decided to rent it out to gather some income in spite of the fact that there are theological differences. The German Lutheran Church teachings and doctorine would line up more closely with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Romanian Orthodox churches are everywhere. This has been the prominent church body for centuries.  Another church we visited yesterday is called St. George's Church and St. John the New Monastary.  This church was built by Moldovian craftsmen beginning back in 1514 and completed in 1522.  This was the same time that Martin Luther had nailed the 95 theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany and was becoming a Doctor of Theology at the university there. Icon worship is big in the orthodox religion.  Icons of saints who died as martyrs for the faith are worshiped in hopes that through faithfully worshiping them you will be brought into heaven.  There's a lot more to the teachings than that but this is the very condensed version for now.  

We will be visiting many more Orthodox Churches in the area and will share more about the orthodox history and we will also share the beauty of the geography here in this part of the world.  Enjoy the pictures.

Neighborhood Orthodox Church and Cemetery


Confessional Lutheran Church Building in Suceava



"Where's Pastor?!"




Luther Quote of the Day

" Christians are not made righteous by doing righteous things, but being made righteous by faith in Christ, they do righteous things.”


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