Why Did I Start Looking Up Congregations I Knew in Canada?

Opperman was a visiting whirlwind and insisted on students visiting all over town. Our confirmation program was Biblical and lasted three years.

St. Peter's nave intimidated me. My first reading was "Perfect love casts out fear." I thought "fear, fear" and could hardly breathe.

I looked up the congregation where I vicared, St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Kitchener, Ontario. Rev. Henry Opperman was the supervising pastor. He had a German pastor - I helped in the German services as a lector. That was the total pastoral staff: 3,500 members. One full-time pastor, one semi-retired German pastor, one vicar.

Now they have a labyrinth in the former German chapel, boasting that the concept is 4,000 years old and found in many religions.

I posted Opperman's grave because he was already crying about the betrayals there, before he retired. They sent over an activist seminarian to work there. The student bluntly told Opperman about his proclivities. Opperman was a major supporter of the seminary and his congregation was traditional, liturgical - enough to get him thrown out of WELS today. Moreover, Opperman grew up in Kitchener.

Ulrich Leupold was the dean of Waterloo Seminary. He was a noted music scholar, an organist, and a fine teacher.

 One of the founders of the seminary was a Pietist 
and taught UOJ. Imagine that! 
Jay Webber was schocked, schocked.

So I toured the congregational site again, looked up downtown churches in Kitchener - all mainline, all shrunken down to almost nothing. A giant UCC church next to St. Peter's has sold its property because they were down to 60 Sunday attendance.

Waterloo Lutheran Seminary is hardly that anymore and has a new name, almost as ironic as LutherQuest (sic). Martin Luther University Seminary! But they have almost no seminary students now, which is just as well. They have dog days so students can come to the chapel and pet dogs, apparently a rare species in Canada.

 Otto Heick's two-volume doctrinal history book was popular in WELS, but I don't recall any WELS books popular at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.

Working on the Gospel of John

I am enjoying the Gospel of John, adding clarifying comments to the text for an illustrated - by Norma A. Boeckler - edition of the Fourth Gospel.

I am on the 11th chapter this morning.

For that reason I am blogging less and putting up shorter posts. That will help Mordor, Willow Creek, and Fuller graduates.

In publishing news -

1. More sermons are being sent out this week as the last batch arrives at homes.
2. More Luther will be published.
3. One book will be a Lutheran dictionary.
4. Another will deal with the destructive effects of Calvinism.

Lutheran Vatican Observer

As the Lutheran Vatican Observer, I will keep readers updated on the Pope Francis scandals. His election as pope was proof of the utter corruption of the College of Cardinals. He had a long history of the worst scandals already, back in South America, so his brethren obviously approved.

Pope Benedict, aka B-16, was most likely forced out of the papacy for taking some mild measures to reduce the abuse. He trimmed McCarrick's feathers, but Francis immediately restored the predatory cardinal.

Pope John Paul II was no angel. Although he stood up to Nazis and Communists in the past, he protected Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Mary, a serial, bi-sexual child rapist.

The anti-Biblical principle involved is this - every priest is a "son of the Church," so the prelates must protect these sons at all costs - and each other. Cardinal Law in Boston had around 200 bad priests, and he was rewarded with a prestige Vatican post. Diocese records are brought to the Vatican, where they are beyond the reach of a search warrant.