S
eriously and determinedly the girl steps into the baptismal pool at Sts. Peter and Paul in Eisleben, Germany—the church where Martin Luther was baptized more than 500 years ago. The pink dress she picked to wear billows up in the water. She keeps walking anyway, all the way down until the water reaches her waist. It’s Sunday, June 24: baptis- mal day for Saskia Trumpf-Pollock, 4, and her brother, Tristan, 2. Saskia herself chose the 7-foot wide and 2-feet deep immersion pool over the more traditional bap- tismal font.
drown the
Baptisms at the traditional font, with remains from the one in which Luther was baptized (see page 37), or the immersion font are part of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany’s new Center for Baptism, which opened at Sts. Peter and Paul April 29.
old Adam Luther’s baptismal site is a new Center for Baptism
Text by Corinna Waltz Photos by Manuela Richter
Scott Moore and his spouse, Claudia Bergmann, for- mer co-pastors of Sts. Peter and Paul and now at the Uni- versity of Erfurt, Germany, wrote the theological concept for the center. “When I poured the water over their heads, I didn’t just get wet. I felt like I was covered in the grace that they were getting,” Moore said. “You can’t get any closer to the grace moment of someone else’s baptism.” Dorit Trumpf-Pollock and Derek Pollock, a German- Irish couple, live outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, but were married at Sts. Peter and Paul. When they heard about the Center for Baptism, they didn’t hesitate to have both children baptized there, although immersion bap- tisms are a relatively new concept in Germany. “The kids were really comfortable with the immersion pool and they liked going in,” Trumpf-Pollock said. As for the adults, “we all had tears of joy in our eyes,”
she said.
It was even moving for two women who were visiting the church—Trumpf-Pollock had spontaneously invited them to stay. While at first the women didn’t know what to think about the immersion pool, after the baptisms of Saskia and Tristan, they were positive that it’s a really great place.
Waltz, a journalist in Stuttgart, Germany, works in the communications department for an interna- tional mission society.
“This is a common reaction,” said Simone Carstens-Kant, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul and in charge of the center since 2009. “But usu- ally when people actually come to
36 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
It takes water to
visit the Center of Baptism and enter the church, their reluctance disap- pears and they are impressed.” Moore, who was trained as a
liturgical design consultant at the Catholic Theological Union in Chi- cago, said the congregation chose to renovate the building because mem- bers weren’t ready “to let go and have it turned into a museum—Sts. Peter and Paul had to stay an active worship space.” They didn’t want the church to be just a historical place where people would stop by and take pic- tures of Luther’s baptismal font, Bergmann added. To make that happen, members knew they needed a new ministry focus, so the idea of an ecumenical, international baptismal center was born in 2008.
The major changes in the building include a new con- crete floor, benches and a full immersion pool. Concentric circles at the center of the church’s floor link the baptismal font and the pool, connecting with a second set of con- centric circles. The second group of circles begin directly underneath a Luther rose painted on the ceiling. The architects, a Berlin-based firm called AFF Archti- tekten, chose wood from local trees for bench seating that can be moved. “They went with benches instead of chairs because it’s still a church and not a conference room,” said Carstens-Kant, who oversaw the remodeling process. And why a full immersion pool? “It is hard to drown
the old Adam in a little bird bath,” said Moore, in a joking reference to Luther’s understanding of Romans 6. Carved into the pool’s stone rim are the words of Mat- thew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nati- ons, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
The pool is always filled to emphasize the importance of water and its role in Luther’s understanding of baptism. Luther believed baptism was a profound confession of
faith, said Arden Haug, director of the ELCA Wittenberg Center. “This is what brought Luther renewed confidence each day,” he said. “In his introduction to Galatians, Luther says, ‘Even if all things are in confusion, heaven and earth are merged, all the gates of hell are moved ... in most cruel fashion, all you have to say is: “I am baptized.” Then all is well with you; in this confidence you will con- quer, for God is taking care of you.’ ” To fund the project, the congregation and city of Eisle-
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