a scattered commons

scattered communion

“According to God’s will Christendom is a scattered people… …God’s people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember Him in the far countries.” “But they remain alone in far countries, a scattered seed according to God’s will. Yet what is denied them as an actual experience they seize upon more fervently in faith.” It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather… …They know that visible fellowship is a blessing.” (Deitrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together)

language elixir

“One of the difficulties against which the Lutheran Church has contended unsuccessfully for many years has been the inclination of the young people of both sexes to leave the church after confirmation. … the reason that is is so is that Lutheranism has not only lost a proportion of those who forsake the Church entirely, but it has lost a far larger number of those who do not understand the foreign tongue used in the large portion of Lutheran churches.” (The New York Times, August 13, 1898)