Exhibit at Higdon Hall will honour 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation

By Gillian Slade on October 7, 2017.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

It is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, and Medicine Hat will celebrate with a public exhibit on Oct. 28 from 1-4 p.m. at Higdon Hall on the Stampede grounds.

The exhibit will remember Luther’s legacy, as authentically as possible with large sets, 10 feet by 12 feet, and people dressed in costume.

The Protestant Reformation was a pivotal moment in history, generally considered one of the top 10 most important events in Western civilization, said Jim Bredeson, senior pastor at Victory Lutheran church, which together with Unity Lutheran and St. Peter Lutheran are responsible for the exhibit.

“Certainly a pivotal moment for the church and had a great impact, obviously, on Protestant churches that all came out of the Reformation eventually, all of them, and the Catholic church was greatly impacted. It went through a reformation of its own too,” said Bredeson.

At the time there was moral and financial corruption within the church.

“They were selling forgiveness essentially,” said Bredeson. “Actually they were doing that to build St. Peter’s in Rome.”

It was never Luther’s intention to leave the Roman Catholic church. He wanted to provoke change within the church but was eventually forced to leave, said Bredeson.

Luther’s Ninety-five Theses of 1517 challenged financial abuse within the church.

It is reminiscent of the TV evangelists about 30 years ago, and there is still a measure of that taking place today, said Bredeson.

The crux of Luther’s work was that salvation could not be bought, but there were ramifications way beyond that.

“One of the great impacts he had was on church music,” said Bredeson. “He changed the style of music from chants to what we recognize as hymns or songs today.”

Through the Protestant Reformation singing became part of the church service. The hymn — A Mighty Fortress is our God — was not only penned by Luther but he composed the music too.

Luther translating the bible from Latin was crucial in making it possible for ordinary people to read, not only priests and the educated, said Bredeson. Without that there was a level of control over the majority in interpreting the bible.

Luther’s impact went beyond the church. He’d translated the bible into the vernacular German and unknowingly created the German language from a variety of dialects, said Bredeson. Other areas of Europe were given an identity as the bible was translated into other languages/dialects.

Like most things in life, timing is everything. Luther’s translation of the bible took place just after the printing press was introduced.

“Luther was a genius. That’s why the Reformation succeeded ultimately. Now the message could go out quickly and it spread all over Europe,” said Bredeson, who calls Luther the “Trump” of his day using the printing press and translation of the bible like U.S. President Trump uses Twitter today.

It spurred on universal literacy because people could read the bible in their own language. The style of church services changed because they were conducted in the language of the people rather than Latin, said Bredeson.

The father of the Protestant Reformation is not to be confused with Martin Luther King Jr., a pivotal civil rights leader in the U.S. whose father was so impressed by what Luther had accomplished that he changed his name.

Michael King, the civil rights leader’s father, travelled to Germany in 1934 and was so inspired by Luther’s courage and the stand he took that he changed his name, said Bredeson.

“That year, he also changed his name (and that of his eldest son) from Michael King to Martin Luther King,” says Wikipedia.

To attend the Martin Luther exhibit on Oct. 28 there is no entrance fee but a free-will offering will be gratefully accepted.

On Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. there will also be a special service in St. Patrick’s church for people of all faiths to mark this 500 anniversary. It will be a service of reconciliation, repentance, and remembrance, said Bredeson.

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