Editorials

Speaking German in North America

Evangelical Lutheran Congregations in the United States and Canada

December 8, 2011

Philadelphia. The first German settler families arrived in October 1683. Rev. Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg, the "father of American Lutheranism", served here in the 18th century. And Philadelphia hosted the 2011 plenary of the 55 German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran parishes that make up the German Evangelical Lutheran Conference in North America (DELKINA). This biennial meeting is the only opportunity for many of the pastors to discuss theological topics in German and exchange views with German colleagues. It is thus a source of mental and spiritual refreshment.

In North America, where every fifth to tenth person is of German origin, there is always a demand for German-speaking pastors. The latter have very different backgrounds. One is a first-generation immigrant, born in Canada of parents who had come out from Germany. Others were posted by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) for a period of six years. And yet others have applied for pastorates in North America and immigrated on their own initiative.

Visiting pastor with a clear mission

Frank Kopania is a mixture in this regard. He has taken leave of his home church in Germany for five years. He has a clear mission and in two years will return to Germany.

Kopania was sent to South Florida to coordinate the pastoral care for the estimated 100,000 Germans residents and to try and establish a stable community. 100,000 Germans? Where are they all? In seven English-speaking congregations there is a German-speaking service once a month for the "snowbirds", German pensioners who, like snowbirds arrive from November, in order to spend the winter in the warm south. They are German groups in English-speaking congregations. Everything very stable - but on a relatively small scale.

Young families in Florida

However, there are many young families, mainly living in Florida on a temporary basis. Frank Kopania concentrates his activity on them. Anyone with children and living abroad remembers their roots around Christmas. There is no religious education in the schools and the classes are culturally so mixed that the Christian festivals are celebrated as little as those of the other religions. Advent wreaths hang on house doors, visible from the street, and sometimes even on trees. Without candles, of course. The festive service in German-speaking churches is like an oasis here: our beloved Advent is traditionally observed, the children can light the candles on the Advent wreath and the many lovely Advent carols are sung with enthusiasm.

But founding a separate congregation with new families will not work. Paul Oppenheim, the EKD's North America secretary, describes the basic problem: you need thousands of Germans to form a congregation - going to church once a year at Christmas is not enough. Besides, the congregations lack money. "We have no theology about donating money to the church. A good cause is, for example, hungry people in Somalia." The American principle that the congregation finances itself, including its pastor, is too unfamiliar. In Germany people pay church tax - no comparison with the 10% of their income paid in America. So Americans could not understand the financial problems of German congregations: "Hey, you have gathered up 60 families, that's great!" Frank Kopania is working on making it great...

From Westphalia to Alberta

Incidentally, in Philadelphia Kopania was elected to be the new chair of DELKINA. While he sits in the shade on his terrace in South Florida (temperature 26 degrees centigrade), his deputy Ingrid Cramer-Dörschel, wrapped up in winter gear, shovels away snow from her front-door in the High North of Canada. 4827 kilometers lie between them - a distance reflecting the main tasks of the committee: to be there for one another in differing social contexts and to network more strongly, widely and deeply.

Ingrid Cramer-Dörschel is one of those who ventured across the Atlantic on her own initiative. After 17 years as a pastor in Westphalia and feeling she could do with a change to work more effectively, she applied to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. "Many pastors stayed put in their pastorates because they feared their old position might be abolished if they moved." She did not want to stay put. Since 2006 and her husband have lived in the Canadian prairie province of Alberta, where she works in Edmonton, the capital, at the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church.

Every Sunday there is a German service at 9.30 am and an English service at 11 am. The German-speaking members are visibly aging. "A fundamental task for me here is to accompany the older members of the German congregation, which was founded first, in their mourning and to reconcile them with the way things are." Their children have mostly married Canadians and their grandchildren then rarely speak German. If these families go to church it is to the English service.

Homelessness and "dirty oil"

The English-speaking congregation is modern, liberal and socially involved. Together with neighboring churches it is working on a project by the City of Edmonton to abolish homelessness. Every two weeks they invite needy people to a meal and are available to talk to them, which is at least as important. About 80 percent of the homeless are first-nation people. They have sad stories of failure to tell. And it is also a story of guilt - because it was the churches which for decades - until 1984 - ran state boarding schools in which indigenous children were supposed to be re-educated. They were not allowed to speak their own language or practice their rituals, and they were beaten and abused. Only in the 1990s was there an awareness of the need for reparation. Compensations and aid projects - for destroyed culture, alcoholism, violence, high suicide rates...

In Alberta they have since then been wronged again - with the ruining of indigenous land. This comes from the extraction of "dirty oil", as the oil sand is called, which contains the biggest crude oil reserves in Canada. The oil boom through the Iraq war eight years ago led to a gold-rush mood - even in Germany, where Canadian companies recruit workers. "The contracts mostly apply for two years and probably they promise to extend them," remarks Ingrid Cramer-Dörschel. In the financial crisis two years ago the oil price of 140 dollars a barrel collapsed to about 35 dollars. Then oil production in Alberta was cut back and thousands of jobs were lost.

Yearning for Canada's wide open spaces

One day, after the service, a woman stood weeping outside the church door, recounts Ingrid Cramer-Dörschel. She had heard of the German church and wanted to pour out her heart to someone. She had immigrated to Canada with her husband and two children. In Germany they had sold everything. They came to Alberta rather naively but full of hope of making good. The husband had a contract as a truck-driver. In the general wave of redundancies he lost his job. Yet their residence permit was linked to his employment contract. The family had to return to Germany- where they had nothing. The marriage broke down due to this crisis. Within six months the family's whole livelihood had collapsed.

There are many such stories. Ingrid Cramer-Dörschel sees them as a field for pastoral care. The mentality of the Germans in her congregation is tougher. The bitter hardship they suffered when coming to Canada is still in their bones. "We managed to build everything up 50 years ago and today they can too," is an often heard opinion.

Ingrid Cramer-Dörschel herself has had permanent residence in Canada since last year. She was given leave of absence by her Westphalian Church for six years. That will run out next year. She is confronted with the decision of whether to stay or not. "Every time I am in Germany," she says, "I long for Canada's wide open spaces..."

[Source: Alexandra Demke, Ottawa]