Hope Chapel

You’ve read Chapter 1, and you’re hungry for more? Don’t worry, we got you!

Why Didn’t Anybody See Our Wedding Kiss?

Amy and I had a very complicated wedding. Our plans were that, when we got to “You may kiss the bride”, a shower of balloons would rain down on us as we smooched. Well, the best laid plans …
When we arrived at Hope Chapel on Saturday at 8 am for our 10 am wedding, there were balloon all over the floor! Apparently overnight the weight of the balloons (balloons have weight? who knew!) overcame the velcro on our homemade net.
Not daunted, we got a big ladder and put all the balloons back in the net. Our Balloon Net Engineer (who will remain nameless … ahem Scott Anderson ahem …) decided to double the amount of velcro, so that the balloons didn’t rain down accidentally before the appointed time in the wedding ceremony.
Well, when said appointed time came, and I was kissing Amy … no balloons! It turns out that the doubled velcro was too strong for the string we had to pull down the net, and when Scott the BNE pulled, the string just snapped. There is a wonderful picture taken by Amy’s grandmother Peggy from the back, that shows us kissing, and everyone in the room is staring up at the balloon net, wondering why it was still there.
But … I can’t find that picture.
So … you get the picture of us heading down the aisle into our life together as a married couple. Behind us, Scott had resourcefully swiped at the net with a mic stand, freeing the trapped balloons to fall behind us.
Postscript: When my oldest son Noah got married at Hope Chapel, he successfully pulled off the balloon trick in his wedding. Well, we always prayed for our children to outdo us … not sure that was what we had in mind though.

The Final Wittenberg Gathering

From Chapter 1:

Certainly heaven was listening in the fall of 2017 when a remarkable group of people gathered in the medieval town of Wittenberg, Germany. They came in groups of twos, threes, and fours filing into the former seminary where Martin Luther taught in 1517, the year he formulated his Ninety-Five Theses. They traveled from many nations to observe the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Nobody’s attitude was triumphant celebration—not even the Lutherans. Instead, they gathered in grief over the hostile divisions in the body of Christ, desiring to pray John 17 with Jesus—“that they all will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” They came to sing, to teach, to reflect, to discuss, to listen.

People from many nations and many streams of the church join together for the final Wittenberg 2017 gathering, 3 Nov 2017

The commissioning service at the very end of the 2017 gathering was led by seven clergy and leaders from seven traditions(left to right): Edi Griesfelder (Pentecostal), Fr. Drtad Uzunyan (Eastern Orthodox), George Miley (Anglican), Keith Blank (Anabaptist), Henning Dobers (Lutheran), Fr. Franziskus Eisenbach (Roman Catholic), and Marianna Gol (Messianic Jew). (5 November 2017)

Opening Night, 2017

The final gathering of the Wittenberg 2017 initiative began on November 1, 2017. Followers of Jesus from many nations and every major stream of the body of Christ gathered in Wittenberg to grieve their divisions and pray John 17 with Jesus.

In this video, Thomas Cogdell kicks off the 5-day gathering by introducing the participants to each other. Honor, good humor, and love from God for each other are evidently present in this extraordinary convocation of lay and leaders from around the world.