CHRIST CHURCH – PICTURE GALLERY
STAVE CHURCH OF URNES
Luster, Norway When Christianity arrived in Scandinavia, it found a land rich in lumber and people highly skilled in carpentry and woodworking. When the first churches began springing up throughout the Scandinavian countryside, the people adopted the local styles and created one of the most unique forms of Christian architecture: the stave church. Throughout the Middle … [Read more...]
REFORMATION MEMORIAL
Worms, Germany While Wittenberg was the place where Martin Luther inadvertently set the stage for the Reformation movement, Worms is where he formally threw down the gauntlet to the religious authorities of the day. Two years after first professing his views in writing on the door of the Castle Church, Luther formally challenged the Papacy outright at the Diet of Worms. … [Read more...]
HIGH KIRK OF GILES
Edinburgh, Scotland The High Kirk of Giles is the greatest church in Edinburgh, the chief house of worship of the Church of Scotland and the spiritual headquarters of the worldwide Presbyterian community. Originally the Catholic Cathedral of St. Giles, the church was seized by the Protestants in the 1550s. It is also unofficially the church of the monarchy in Scotland. … [Read more...]
ST. PIERRE’S CATHEDRAL
Geneva, Switzerland While Wittenberg is honored as the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation, it was Geneva that served as the unofficial headquarters of Reformation activity throughout the better part of the 16th century. Although he was not a Lutheran, John Calvin took up the banner of the Reformation in the years following Martin Luther’s death as the next great … [Read more...]
GROSSMUNSTER OF ZURICH
Zurich, Switzerland Uldrich Zwingli is the oft-forgotten third leg of the Protestant Reformation, almost lost in the shadows of giants Luther and Calvin. The most prominent Reformer independent of Luther, he established Protestantism throughout much of Switzerland a few decades before John Calvin showed up. Until Calvin established himself in Geneva, Zurich was the … [Read more...]
WITTENBERG CASTLE CHURCH
Wittenberg, Germany The Protestant Reformation went through numerous fits and starts before finally gaining traction in the City of Wittenberg. It is ironic that Protestantism found its first true success in the very heart of the Papal-supported Holy Roman Empire, although the widespread decentralization of Imperial power in Central Europe perhaps made it the logical place … [Read more...]
PRAGUE CASTLE
Prague, Czech Republic Like Wittenberg, Prague was a city of destiny for the Protestant movement. When the Catholic Church attempted to reassert its influence in Central Europe, it was in Prague that the Protestants made their first historic stand. The Second Defenestration of Prague kicked off the Thirty Years War, the most violent inter-Christian conflict in history. By … [Read more...]
ST. MARY’S CHURCH
Lutterworth, England If Wittenberg in Germany is the place where the Protestant Reformation was born, than the small town of Lutterworth in Central England was the place where it was conceived. It was here in the mid-14th century that the theologian John Wycliffe offered the first serious challenge to the authority of the Catholic Church, which many in Europe saw as having … [Read more...]
