500 years on, Reformation takes on new slant in city
Posters show change via personal insight
Over the past several months, two Lutheran ministers and other volunteers went out onto the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, surveying everyone from total strangers to VIPs.
Their query: “Tell me about a time in your life you have experienced a change that is meaningful to you.”
Now the results are on display in posters in the windows and doors of Downtown shops, restaurants, churches, charities and other sites.
The respondents, depicted in vibrant photographic portraits, tell of changes brought about by cancer, adoption, jail, addiction, mental illness, poverty, divorce (their own or their parents’) or fleeing as refugees.
The black-and-gold posters will remain on display through the end of the month, culminating in what’s considered to be the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation on Oct. 31.
That Reformation — according to popular lore but uncertain history — began in 1517 when a German monk named Martin Luther posted a document on a church door seeking reforms in Roman Catholicism. What resulted was an enduring schism between Catholics and Protestants.
Theproject was inspired by Luther’s bearing witness in a public place. Posters are displayed everywhere from Wiener World to the Highmark Caring Place to the Smithfield Street branch of the Carnegie Public Library. Viewers can also look up the participants’ stories in more detail online by scanning QR codes.
“We’re trying to recapture that he started a conversation about change,” said the Rev. Jennifer McCurry, associate pastor at First Lutheran Church, who coordinated the survey along with a Lutheran colleague, the Rev. Natalie Hall. “I don’t know that he expected to spark a change that went as far as it did.”
As with many of the Reformation anniversary events, the emphasis is not on the historic divisions but on what Christian and other groups have in common. Catholics were among the most enthusiastic participants, with posters outside Catholic as well as Protestant churches and charities. Roman Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran bishops participated.
But the content is personal, not preachy.
“We’re not interested in giving someone a platform to convert others,” Rev. McCurry said. “We’re interested in stories about change.”
The website for the project, Always Made New: Formed and Reformed (alwaysmadenew.org), includes dozens of such stories along with the portraits taken by Lawrenceville photographer Sean Carroll. In addition to spontaneous street interviews, organizers also scheduled interviews with local civic leaders and Allegheny County Jail staffand inmates.
It’s a project of First Lutheran and the Downtown Pittsburgh Ministerium, which is led by clergy in churches and nonprofit agencies. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America provided funds from a grant program for creative Reformation-related projects.
More than 130 people shared their stories.
Jail Warden Orlando Harper spoke of the impact of dealing with a family member with mental illness: “I want to do as much as I can possibly do to make sure that inmates living in our facility with mental health issues have a better quality of life inside of our jail and also outside of our jail.”
Alberta Wilkes spoke of the time she missed the final bus of the night and had no way to get home: “I had to experience what it felt like to live on the street. I have more compassion now because it can be really scary in this world.”
Randy Gilson, creator of the North Side home known as Randyland with its eclectic decor, spoke of how he got started in created art from recycled objects while growing up poor in Homestead. Though his single mother couldn’t afford to buy toys for Christmas gifts, he salvaged some discarded toys for his siblings.
“Mama always says Jesus was a carpenter,” Mr. Gilson said. “Then I thought, ‘Well, I’m a toolbox.’ … My ears are tools to listen. My mouth is a tool to speak. My feet is a tool to walk. … I can build anything, anytime, anyhow, anyway.”
Inmate Ken Shrum at the Allegheny County Jail spoke of his road to recovery: “I used to wake up and my first thing was heroin. But now I wake up and look forward to the day.”
Rev. Hall said she deliberately sought to interview people on the street she normally wouldn’t approach. The results were invariably fascinating, she said.
And that has changed her interactions since then, said Rev. Hall who is canon for evangelism and faith formation for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. (As a Lutheran, she’s an example of cross-Protestant-cooperation.)
“I hope other people might have a similar experience of seeing someone who might be unfamiliar as being someone who has some humanity or a similar experience you can in part relate to,” she said. “I walk with my eyes up in a way that I don’t know if I ever did before.”
On Oct. 29, people can take part in a 1.5-mile “pilgrimage walk” to various posters, which will include prayers that relate to some of the issues raised by the interviewees. It starts at 2 p.m. at First Lutheran, 615 Grant St. The church also will host a service commemorating the Reformation at 4 p.m.