Cade and Gretta Rempel Fisher are blogging while on the Youth Venture Anabaptism at 500: Looking Back to See the Future trip. The historical trip begins in Zürich, Switzerland and culminates at the Anabaptism at 500 Global Youth Summit in Württemberg, Germany.
Time and place were key themes in our walking tour of Zürich. It was surprising how closely Zürich’s town hall——which issued edicts and laws——is to the Grossmünster——an important church where leaders of the Protestant reformation taught and preached. The present construction of the Grossmünster stands on the foundations of a church built during the reign of King Charlemagne, in the 8th century. The building quite literally has roots in the Holy Roman Empire and this week Anabaptists will be welcomed back into the space to celebrate our 500th anniversary.
Comparing the Fraumünster and Grossmünster churches in Zurich with Shalom Community Church in Ann Arbor reveals differences in worship and community. At Shalom, we make decisions by congregational consensus, actively choose to meet in a rented space rather than owning a building and emphasize living in community. This is a stark contrast from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and some Protestant traditions, which is embodied by the Fraumünster and Grossmünster’s high, vaulted ceilings, and arches which draw the congregants’ eyes heavenward. Priests and pastors were intermediates and literally preached from above the congregation.
The evolution of faith traditions and their places of worship is fascinating. Some elements are buried over time, only to be rediscovered later. Others endure, reinforced by tradition. Still others are reshaped to align with new beliefs, or communities abandon these spaces entirely to forge new beginnings elsewhere.
Other sites we visited were the street where the first adult baptism by Anabaptists occurred, Konrad Grebel’s house, and location on the Limmat where Felix Manz was drowned.
