The “mascot” of Ulm Minster (church) in Ulm, Germany, where last year I had (live! In-person!) 2019 Easter Service, is a sparrow holding a twig in its beak. The original sculpture is preserved in glass and a metal replica sits on the roof spine of this “tallest church in the world.” Built solely by the men and women citizens of Ulm between 1377 and 1890, the Ulm Minster has 768 steps you can climb to a panoramic view on a clear day of God’s highest peak in the Alps, the Zugspitze. Like a soul’s pilgrimage to heaven, visitors must climb the last section of the spire single file one-by-one due to the narrow width of the staircase.
I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to attend Easter Service in this medieval Gothic church, just weeks after the world lost forever many antiquities when Notre Dame burned. The survival of medieval Ulm Minster is itself a miracle as 80% of the medieval town was destroyed in WW II bombing. Even striking adjoining buildings, somehow all bombs missed the church.
The over 500-year-long construction of this tallest church in the world is due to the faith, perseverance, and lively participation of both women and men citizen-parishioners. It is Lutheran by choice due to a referendum held in 1530 after the Reformation. Why did this vision to build the tallest church persist over generations? Was/Is it a visual symbol of the parishioners’ quest to get ever-closer to God? Was the original idea to thank the Lord for the end of the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) about 20 years earlier in 1351?
We are faced today with our own worldwide plague/pandemic. The Black Death wiped out 30–50% of Europe’s population and 200 million worldwide. Our Covid-19 has killed over 330,000 people including about 90,000 Americans and counting. A return of some form of the virus is expected in fall. We can’t go back. We are facing 15–20% unemployment and a $3.8 tn federal deficit. We failed to see how close so many lived on the edge. We failed to protect the most vulnerable elderly, poor, widows, orphans and the unlucky. In
The Financial Times
, a former chief economist at CIti states the pandemic has “exposed the rotten foundations of our welfare state.” About half the population has health insurance tied to employment and that gaps in unemployment insurance and delays in processing claims has caused hardship. I say we have also mis-valued the essential nature and appropriate price of garbage workers, nurses, and some nursing home staff, the FDA, and others while hedge fund managers pay little tax under the carried interest rule.
A silver lining is that the pandemic has led to a large drop in carbon emissions threatening intolerable scorched earth climate change. We weren’t going to do those things on time needed to prevent a 2 degree rise in temperature by 2030, were we? Suddenly, wrenchingly, we and the wild have been blessed by God’s reboot and reset of the climate clock. More than anything, though, we have been shown how much we need each other. Our eyes are opened to see how others live and suffer. We’ve been given a massive chance to think how much we need to protect ourselves and others in a future that is not yet clear.
The humble Ulm sparrow holding a twig is honored for showing the Ulmers that if they couldn’t build the tallest church in the world by carrying the long construction beams into the entrance horizontally, they only had to watch the sparrow turn 90 degrees to carry its twig sideways to finish its nest. Likewise, we are called to seek creative solutions and goals with a singleness of heart to shape a new society that will be our “tallest church closer to God.” Meanwhile, it is surely a time for loaves and fishes.
Sabina Joe
