In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, can you possibly understand the overwhelming sense of joy that possesses my heart and soul at this moment? I have just completed a long, long journey. It has taken me 460 years to walk one block - from St. John’s to St. Ambrose - because this Year of Our Lord 1979 is the 460th Anniversary of the greatest revolution that have ever shaken this globe. This marks the beginning of that Reformation and that Counter-Reformation, and when I think of the hatreds, the turmoil, and the bloodshed that resulted as Christian turned upon Christian, to kill and to maim, I can only look upon this moment with holy and unrestrained rejoicing.

Little did I ever dream as I grew up as a Lutheran pastor…