April 2022 Cover & Highlights

The cover art from a WWII poster by Aage Jorgensen is a reminder that resilience and defiance rise out of people whose love of country is rooted in their hearts, whether Danes after the April 9, 1940, Nazi invasion or Ukrainians facing the current Russian invasion.

DanChurchAid [Folkekirkens Nørdhjæp] is marking 100 years of working to save lives, build resilient communities, and fight extreme inequality worldwide. Edward Broadbridge has shared the official centenary celebration song about hope, “Du spør mig om håbet.” He translated the lyrics by Lisbeth Smedegaard Andersen into an English version, “You Ask Me What Hope Is,” which fits just as well with the music by Mads Granum. Since the organization’s Danish language. website, https://www.noedhjaelp.dk/, has more background information on the song than its English-language website, https://www.danchurchaid.org/, a translated excerpt of an article by journalist Mathias Wejs Hansen and comments by the jury of the song competition are included in this issue.

In “It Is Impossible to Predict, Especially the Future,” Hanna Broadbridge provides interesting background and explanation about how the Orthodox church factors into the Russian invasion into Ukraine.

Though Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western Christianity celebrate Easter Sunday on different dates, the message of resurrection and hope is universal. In this issue, we have an Easter sermon from 1995 by Pastor Edwin D. Peterman, who reminds us that resurrection is something to be experienced in our daily lives.

Dick Juhl, in another “Life in a Rear View Mirror,”  recounts a recent incident and recalls the wit of Whitey Jorgensen to inform his frame of mind about the experience.

That frame of mind, no doubt, reflects the Grundtvigian influence in the church in which they were raised. Pastor Ralph Andersen wrote about this influence in a section of his 1978 dissertation. It is appropriate to reprint it in this issue since this month we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the final Grand View Pastors Institute and the talks from that institute provided the source material for this portion of Ralph’s dissertation.

In conclusion, Edward Broadbridge provides a snapshot of the work of two notable Grundtvig scholars who. have recently died, Knud Eyvin Bugge and Christian Thodberg. 

Hallelujah! Christ is risen! You are risen, too!

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