Visit to Brunnadern and St. Gallen — LIFE ILLUMINATED TRAVEL

First published December 2, 2010

After a long, but thankfully easy journey, Denys and I arrived in Brunnadern on Friday evening greeted by chilly winter air, a blanket of snow, and the warm grinning face of Rev. Catherine McMillan Haueis, our host for the weekend. Thankfully, she recognized us immediately from the pictures we had sent her. There is nothing more welcoming or reassuring than to arrive in an unfamiliar place and to be greeted by someone who is overjoyed to see you. It was a wonderful surprise to be paired with a Presbyterian pastor from the United States, a woman from the South, no less, and who happens to love to sing Gospel music, as I quickly learned!

She brought us to her home, a beautiful 250 year old, four story manse just down the road from the train station. Her husband, Peter, a pastor of another Reformed parish in a neighboring city, was adding the final touches to a savory smelling dinner. We settled in around the table, now also joined by David, the youngest child, and feasted on a warm, hearty, traditional Swiss German meal. It was actually a variation on a traditional dish of beef in a gravy over pasta. Tonight ]instead, Peter had sauteed chopped chicken in a pepper and cream gravy which he served over rice. Delicious! We exchanged basic introductory information about each other with the aid of Catherine’s translating since Peter and David did not speak very much English. It was so nice to be in a household again and around one table over amazing home cooking and delightful company.

Following dinner we had the opportunity to join them for a little party for one of their friends who was about to close his bike repair shop so he could return full time to his work as a comedian. I was pleased to see I was not only going to get a taste of the church life here, but also experience the social life, as well. There we enjoyed traditional glühwein (Swiss hot spiced wine) then headed off to Peter’s church to hear a concert called “Gospel Roots”.

I simply cannot get over how popular and prevalent Gospel music is here! The concert was an excellent, eclectic mix of Gospel Standards from the United States, Aboriginal music from Australia and a great variety of African songs from Tanzania, Namibia and South Africa. Some of the songs were a capella, but others were accompanied by rare instruments such as the didgeridoo and a flute that sounded just like a little bird, some were accented by more common instruments like the djimbe, upright bass, and flute.

The following day I met up with Pehr-Albin and his host Jakob for a tour around St. Gallen. We climbed up to one of the highest points in the city in order to take in a beautiful panoramic view of the winter wonderland of a city. Looking down I could make out clearly the steeples of the Catholic Cathedral, the Abbey of Saint Gall, and the Reformed church. If only the two could be as neighborly down below as they appeared to be harmoniously side by side from so high above. We are getting there.

The two churches partner in a sense these days by hosting simultaneously the Taizé Night of Lights concerts in their sanctuaries. The popularity of the event has increased so much it has outgrown its original location in the Abbey of Saint Gall. There seems to be little discrepancy as to where people go to take part in the event. It was a beautiful experience.

We sang multiple Taizé songs in a variety of languages, prayed and listened to a sermon in German about “doing for the least of these, ” (cf. Mt. 25:31-46--which basically teaches that if one provides for those in need/"the least of these": feed the hungry, visit those in prison, give clothing to the naked... it will be as if they had done it for God and such an action is a reflection of God's work and presence in that person's life and therefore they will be invited into God's kingdom.) I could understand only small portions of the service which was frustrating in ways, but eye-opening in others. I was challenged to immerse with trust into the music. Even if I could not interpret the words I decided I needed to put my trust in the fact that they were heartfelt and reverent to God.

The experience also caused me to consider how powerful it was that hundreds of us where singing in unison to God, or what was intended to be to God, at least. I wondered to myself how God was reacting to all this. Was God pleased that so many people had gathered for this beautiful, peaceful event even if only to indulge in the novelty of its sacredness which overcomes so many at this time of year? Or was God bothered that so many had gathered to sing these songs, but did so with disengaged hearts—enjoying the atmosphere and the company of friends and family, but totally detached from any of the associations made with God? Were they merely admiring the talents of the fine artists who had painted the exquisite celestial scenes soaring across the ceiling all the while making no connection to the one they were painted of, painted for, let alone who had given the gift of painting to the artists in the first place? Personally, I can only hope for the former. I can only hope God was pleased by our presence and our actions that night. I can only hope that though surely some people were gathered there with no intention to worship God, they were or will be touched by God—whether moved by the lyrics or by one of the hauntingly beautiful melodies, or simply recognized God’s presence in the love of those who surrounded them.

Photo 7

On an entirely different note, I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my cousin Stephen on Saturday, too! This was such a huge blessing for me! Stephen is like a brother to me. The funny thing is, as close as we are, we only really ever see each other at Thanksgiving. How perfect that now we had both moved out of California and had found ourselves living in the same foreign country and the one time we could manage to see each other was for Thanksgiving! Well, for a brief moment I thought our great plans had come to not because I found out I was scheduled to attend this parish visit the weekend after Thanksgiving. Then, I learned the pastor I had been assigned to had arranged for us to visit St. Gallen on Saturday, the very city Stephen lived in!! Amazing. So, I met up with him, his girlfriend Brianna and a handful of other Americans to feast on on turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and all sorts of other comforting foods!! After being happily stuffed, Stephen played piano and I sang carols and hymns--blissful. Though, I wish we'd had more time to play spoons, too! (Our family's tradition)

The next morning I joined Catherine at her parish to preach and sing. The sermon was a good experience, especially the practice of working with an interpreter. Catherine mentioned to me how glad she was that I had addressed issues of social justice such as serving and advocating for our oppressed neighbors (locally and internationally). These were, and to some still are, sensitive and undesirable sermon topics for her congregants to listen to. She said, now that they had heard such a message from me they will know she is not the only one who is feels the need to address these realities. I know people do not like hearing hard, uncomfortable, challenging messages. They often convict and bother me, too. I am sure they seem especially irrelevant to a congregation in a quiet little Swiss village, but perhaps that is an even greater reason why they need to be exposed to and educated about these realities. Theses uncomfortable words to us are the uncomfortable REALITIES of the majority of people in the world. The people in church need to be reminded that the one they claim to follow and model their lives after, Jesus, was consistently an advocate for the oppressed people of society. Such a message to "do likewise" and provide "for the least of these" (as the sermon stated the night before) is the heart of the Gospel.

As it turned out, I got to see Stephen and Brianna again. After the service I got to listen to Stephen play the organ in the old, open, empty church and occasionally chime in with the lyrics of the hymns I could remember. Playing together just fills me with much joy 😊 We all ate rachlett (a traditional Swiss dish of potatoes and this fantastic melted cheese) and veal sausage (one of my new favorite foods) for lunch then perused the Christmas market in the brisk air and snow covered streets.

Our last day we returned to St. Gallen to meet up with a few other Bossey students and visit one of the Ecumenical Offices. I giggled to myself when I saw the table decorated with a beautiful advent wreath, papers to be presented and half a dozen little bread men on plates around the table. I giggled because these darling bread men had knives sticking out from behind their backs that were just waiting to cut into them and all the while they were sporting innocent, grinning mouths and these odd 3 dimensional plastic pipes. All I could think of was the gingerbread man in Shrek wailing, "Not my gumdrop buttons!" Okay, anyway, the bread was good, the meeting was good.

THEN, they kindly took us to lunch before we set out on our 5 hour trip back to Bossey and there...I had one of the best meals of my life. Seriously. It was, as my dear professor and friend Joel Winchip would say, "It was a meal that changed my life." It started off with this creamy, curry soup with hints of cinnamon and orange. Then I had a succulent piece of chicken lightly encrusted with pistachios and bread crumbs. (If you can do a basic piece of chicken really well you get three gold stars from me.) It was surrounded by halved yellow and red cherry tomatoes, perfectly cooked broccoli and the best gnocchi I have ever had. As some of you may know, gnocchi (an Italian potato and wheat pasta) can just be way too gummy and sadly end up gross. This gnocchi I think had less flour and was less cooked and, well, perfect. Every bite you just sank your teeth into, held the variety of flavors on your tongue for a few moments before you began to chew slowly and satisfyingly till you swallowed then eagerly reached for your next bite to experience whole sensational thing all over again.

Needless to say, I had a rich and thoroughly enjoyable experience. I really appreciated getting a taste of an entirely different Swiss culture. Though I got a bit sick, I was refreshed mentally for my return to Bossey and classes.