Third Reich resistance martyr, German Lutheran theologian, DietrichBonhoeffer.
October 24, 2008
By Darla Martin Tucker
On Nov. 1, La Sierra University will pay tribute to a revered German Lutheran theologian and author whom Nazi forces killed for conspiring against the Third Reich.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, alarmed at Adolf Hitler’s control of both church and state, returned to his native land to suffer with his people. He co-founded the Confessing Church, essentially a movement against Nazi Germany. After much spiritual wrestling, Bonhoeffer, an avowed pacifist, reluctantly joined underground and military forces in one of several plots to assassinate Hitler. Nazi forces captured the religious leader in 1943 and imprisoned him on charges of conspiracy. While incarcerated, Bonhoeffer ministered to both guards and inmates and wrote extensively. On April 9, 1945, the Nazis executed him by a brutal hanging just three weeks before Allied forces liberated Berlin.
On Nov. 1, La Sierra’s Stahl Center for World Service, during its annual Stahl Center Day, will honor Bonhoeffer with several events. A liturgical service and international processional is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. at the La Sierra University Church, 4937 Sierra Vista Ave., Riverside.
To begin the service, La Sierra students will enter bearing flags of their various ancestral nations, quilts from the Stahl Center’s global quilting project, artifacts from the Stahl Center Museum of Culture and candles in candleholders fashioned with clay from sites around the world.
The service will include vocal and wind ensemble performances and responsive readings with quotations from such Bonhoeffer works as “Life Together,” “Communion of the Saints,” and “Letters and Papers from Prison.” University President Randal Wisbey will present a service homily that draws from Bonhoeffer’s life and writings.
At 12:30 p.m., the university will induct Bonhoeffer into the university’s Path of the Just by placing an honorary marker on the university’s central mall. The Path of the Just is a series of continental patios, trees and benches. Special markers will honor several world-renowned humanitarians including Mother Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Weisel, as well as influential community leaders and Seventh-day Adventists who have fostered individual empowerment, human rights or religious toleration.
At 4 p.m., the university will show a film on Bonhoeffer’s life titled, “Hanged on a Twisted Cross.” The film will be presented at the La Sierra University Church and will be followed by a short panel discussion. Admission is free.
The Stahl Center for World Service, founded in 1989, annually features a liturgical program that invites students to envision themselves becoming agents of altruistic service. Stahl Center Day honors humanitarians of all faiths and also celebrates the national, ethnic and cultural diversity of the campus.
In August, U.S. News and World Report ranked La Sierra University first among universities in 15 western states for its diverse student population. The recognition, cited in the magazine’s America’s Best Colleges report, marked the fifth consecutive year that La Sierra has led the West in diversity rankings.
The Stahl Center’s mission statement is, “passing a vision of world service to a new generation of students.” Its projects include the Path of the Just at La Sierra’s campus; a global quilting project that has collected 20,000 quilts worldwide for aiding displaced children and babies stricken by AIDS; global museum displays; and global service projects including school and orphanage construction and well digging in underdeveloped countries.
The center was established in honor of Ana and Fernando Stahl, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries who in 1909 left a comfortable life in the United States for the challenges of the remote Peruvian and Bolivian highlands. There they established chapels, clinics, markets and the region’s first co-educational school system for indigenous peoples who were languishing under repression and ignorance. The educational system founded by the Stahls ultimately grew to a chain of 200 schools encircling the vast Lake Titicaca. A graduate of the schools eventually became the region’s first representative in Peru’s National Congress.
Call the Stahl Center director at (909) 732-6608 for more information. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A map can be found at http://www.lasierra.edu/resources/campusmap/.
Photo opp: Oct. 28, 10 a.m. - La Sierra students will prepare the European continent garden for the induction commemorating Bonhoeffer and his contributions.
PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)
By Darla Martin Tucker
On Nov. 1, La Sierra University will pay tribute to a revered German Lutheran theologian and author whom Nazi forces killed for conspiring against the Third Reich.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, alarmed at Adolf Hitler’s control of both church and state, returned to his native land to suffer with his people. He co-founded the Confessing Church, essentially a movement against Nazi Germany. After much spiritual wrestling, Bonhoeffer, an avowed pacifist, reluctantly joined underground and military forces in one of several plots to assassinate Hitler. Nazi forces captured the religious leader in 1943 and imprisoned him on charges of conspiracy. While incarcerated, Bonhoeffer ministered to both guards and inmates and wrote extensively. On April 9, 1945, the Nazis executed him by a brutal hanging just three weeks before Allied forces liberated Berlin.
On Nov. 1, La Sierra’s Stahl Center for World Service, during its annual Stahl Center Day, will honor Bonhoeffer with several events. A liturgical service and international processional is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. at the La Sierra University Church, 4937 Sierra Vista Ave., Riverside.
To begin the service, La Sierra students will enter bearing flags of their various ancestral nations, quilts from the Stahl Center’s global quilting project, artifacts from the Stahl Center Museum of Culture and candles in candleholders fashioned with clay from sites around the world.
The service will include vocal and wind ensemble performances and responsive readings with quotations from such Bonhoeffer works as “Life Together,” “Communion of the Saints,” and “Letters and Papers from Prison.” University President Randal Wisbey will present a service homily that draws from Bonhoeffer’s life and writings.
At 12:30 p.m., the university will induct Bonhoeffer into the university’s Path of the Just by placing an honorary marker on the university’s central mall. The Path of the Just is a series of continental patios, trees and benches. Special markers will honor several world-renowned humanitarians including Mother Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Weisel, as well as influential community leaders and Seventh-day Adventists who have fostered individual empowerment, human rights or religious toleration.
At 4 p.m., the university will show a film on Bonhoeffer’s life titled, “Hanged on a Twisted Cross.” The film will be presented at the La Sierra University Church and will be followed by a short panel discussion. Admission is free.
The Stahl Center for World Service, founded in 1989, annually features a liturgical program that invites students to envision themselves becoming agents of altruistic service. Stahl Center Day honors humanitarians of all faiths and also celebrates the national, ethnic and cultural diversity of the campus.
In August, U.S. News and World Report ranked La Sierra University first among universities in 15 western states for its diverse student population. The recognition, cited in the magazine’s America’s Best Colleges report, marked the fifth consecutive year that La Sierra has led the West in diversity rankings.
The Stahl Center’s mission statement is, “passing a vision of world service to a new generation of students.” Its projects include the Path of the Just at La Sierra’s campus; a global quilting project that has collected 20,000 quilts worldwide for aiding displaced children and babies stricken by AIDS; global museum displays; and global service projects including school and orphanage construction and well digging in underdeveloped countries.
The center was established in honor of Ana and Fernando Stahl, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries who in 1909 left a comfortable life in the United States for the challenges of the remote Peruvian and Bolivian highlands. There they established chapels, clinics, markets and the region’s first co-educational school system for indigenous peoples who were languishing under repression and ignorance. The educational system founded by the Stahls ultimately grew to a chain of 200 schools encircling the vast Lake Titicaca. A graduate of the schools eventually became the region’s first representative in Peru’s National Congress.
Call the Stahl Center director at (909) 732-6608 for more information. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A map can be found at http://www.lasierra.edu/resources/campusmap/.
Photo opp: Oct. 28, 10 a.m. - La Sierra students will prepare the European continent garden for the induction commemorating Bonhoeffer and his contributions.
PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)