Zion Church of Baltimore

Now that my husband has Sundays off again, we've decided to conquer some of the churches in Baltimore itself. I'm hoping to branch this blog out with more visuals, perhaps on a website. For this week, we went to the only church in Baltimore that still has a weekly service in German. There is also an English service later on, but I have not tried that one yet.

Location: 400 E. Lexington Street

Worship time: 9:15 a.m. for the German service, 11:15 for the English service

Spiritual Leader: Reverend Dr. Holger Roggelin is a witty middle-aged man who is very welcoming. It was clear he knew his parishioners when he mentioned an older member who recently broke a hip. Though he did show his concern, Reverend Roggelin wryly reminded people that we are all getting older and need to remember we can't do everything we used to be able to do.

He also made sure to personally invite me and my husband to the Kaffeestunde at 10:15 and also to the beautiful, well-kept library behind the altar.

Congregation: The 26 parishioners were by and large an older crowd, formally attired, on time, and very close to each other. Yet, we were definitely welcomed at the Kaffeestunde. Hearing some of the parishioners' stories was a lot of fun. They made an effort to engage my husband, primarily an English speaker, in the conversation as well.

Interior: The church was very cozy. It was simple, wooden pews and mostly regular windows with a gorgeous stained glass above the pulpit to focus attention there. A small divider sectioned off room for an office and Sunday School.

Presentation: To say this church is beautiful is an armaggedon-like understatement. Zion Church was built in 1755 and has the graves of several important historical figures on site. Stained glass windows from different regions of Germany tells stories from a variety of places in the Bible. The pews are comfortable but bisected, which gives the church a fuller look.

Sermon: The reverend smoothly blended the firm belief that parishioners are personally accountable for doing their own soul searching about their beliefs with a kind and personable manner that understood the foibles of human nature. This message in particular was a bit difficult to make new, but the reverend managed. He pondered the Trinity and how absurd the "dreieinger Gott" even sounds. The reverend firmly asserted that God is relational, in all three parts, managing to stay quiet but intense. He also affirmed that the Trinity is one of the only ways that our feeble human minds can wrap around the mystery of the Almighty. Impressive, really.

Music: The hymns are traditional, some in the hymnals but others in the bulletin without the score. A lot of the music was call and response, which was more difficult to follow if you were new.

The pastor also added a verse of "America the Beautiful" in English to commemorate Memorial Day.

Overall atmosphere: The building and people have a serene pride that make me want to be a bigger part of this culture and city. I'm fairly certain I'll be back.

Woodberry Church of the Brethren

Woodberry Church of the Brethren

If I'm correct, this is the last church in Hampden that I hadn't been to. Hope everyone has enjoyed the blog so far.

Location: West 36th and Poole Streets. It's actually down the hill from the Avenue itself, towards the light rail station.

Worship time: 11:00 a.m.

Spiritual Leader: Pastor John Weyant, a sweet and cheesy middle-aged man who takes a moment to think how to phrase things but is very enthusiastic.

Congregation: Of the 21 there, most were over 50. There were a couple of parents with young children. While dress tended toward nicer attire, some of the older crowd also wore jeans.

Interior: The church was very cozy. It was simple, wooden pews and mostly regular windows with a gorgeous stained glass above the pulpit to focus attention there. A small divider sectioned off room for an office and Sunday School.

Presentation: Though the bulletin gave the disclaimer "This service is subject to change, under the discretion of the Holy Spirit," there was nothing scary about this church. Everyone who talked had a nice, wry sense of humor. The pastor and leaders talked through the transitions and made the transition from the Sharing of Joys and Concerns time to worship again fairly smoothly. I found that the post-Ravens' loss chattiness that greeted me at the door continued with the members' genuine concern for each other.

What really impressed me was the constant outreach and respect for other denominations. For instance, not only does this church work with local churches to supply the food pantry, but they invited all to Emmanuel's Rock at the Falls Road Methodist church on Wednesday at 7 p.m. for a contemporary service. Perhaps this is because this denomination, as one of the parishioners said, is smaller than many, but it will serve them well.

Sermon: The message, "The Model and Model Behavior," focused on humans, like the pottery of the Ming Dynasty, being stamped with the mark of God, making us very valuable indeed. Historical allusions didn't touch on the scripture part of things so much as why people make models at all and that if God is the potter, that he made things that are made to be used. Some of the references felt thrown in instead of meaningful, but at least there was a variety to be found.

Music: The songs were traditional and from a hymnal. The pianist played well, though the acoustics of the church made it hard for all of us to hear the right notes and adjust.

Overall atmosphere: So many people came to talk to me and were receptive to what I was doing. I was even invited out for a free lunch to further talk about the church and the churches in Hampden. Mr. Fred Wilhelm, a distinguished gentleman who seems to have become a bit of a local church historian, helped fill in many of the gaps.

The church does have a website, www.freewebs.com/woodberrycob, but it isn't very kept up. However, the COB is involved with the Christian Fellowship, a group of Hampden churches that gets together the first Thursday of each month at rotating locations to network. In February, COB will host this event. It always begins at 6 p.m. with dinner, which leads to 7 p.m. worship.

Since I believe I have attended all the churches, I will now mostly be posting updates from the Christian Fellowship. Please feel free to contact me at rmschwarz@gmail.com with any questions.