Members of Zion Lutheran Church in Schwartz and St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ladysmith enjoyed an evening of hymns and fellowship at Brauwerk Hoffman Brewery in Campbell’s Bay on Friday evening in a celebration of Reformation Day.
The brainchild of Pastor Sue Neville and local musician Nikki Buechler, the evening was an opportunity to remember the year 1517, when Martin Luther, then a professor of moral theology in Germany, wrote his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, commonly known as The Ninety-five Theses, and effectively started Protestantism, of which the Lutheran faith is considered a major part.
Some 20 people attended the event, and much to their surprise and delight, they arrived at the brewery in the midst of a power outage. Candles and artificial light sources were brought forth and the celebration of an early 16th century figure took a completely authentic air.
The event was somewhat of a German potluck-sing-a-long, akin to the familiar Irish Hooley held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Shawville, only the songbook was a hymnary and the focus, rooted in faith.
Hymn after hymn issued forth from a corner of the brewery made into a makeshift stage, lit only by the radiant glow of a cell phone held aloft by a microphone tower. Voices drew in unison, and augmented the melodic rhythm of Buechler’s fiddle and Neville’s lead vocals and guitar.
It was a fireside sing-a-long without the campfire and where the smores were replaced by cheeseboards, potato salad and pickles. Host Todd Hoffman made sure that the beer flowed freely and that the glasses were full.
Between hymns, Neville, or Pastor Sue as she is known to her congregationals, offered quotes of humour and interest from Luther, suggesting that some had origins in his wit and beliefs and others in his tendency to imbibe. Either way, the quotes elicited smiles, laughter and, at times, nods of understanding and agreement.
Across the brewery, silent save for the chorus of a new and yet familiar fellowship, Luther’s belief in the inner spirit was manifest and who can argue with that? Pass the Schwarzb,ier, bitte.
