Some pretty German dolls are on view at the German-American Cultural Center, found in the guts of Gretna’s Nationwide Register Important District, at 519 Huey P. Long Ave. So as to boost this display, the Friends of GACC invites the general public to go to a meeting on Saturday at 7 p.m, when guest speaker Suzette Kinchen will talk about German doll making.

The program Sat. night will include a second guest speaker, artist Mary Ann DeBois Blanc of Metairie, who has her primitive art displayed at the center.

Blanc will talk about the circa 1724-26 original Louisiana German coast settlements of Karlstein, Augsburg, Mariental and Hoffen. Karlstein is often known as the Waterford location in the Stream Parishes.

There will be talks with the guest speakers and refreshments. There is no charge.

The GACC translates the unique German immigrant contribution to Louisiana’s history through exhibits, lectures, programs and other tutorial activities.

The cultural center museum is open Wednesday thru Sat. from ten a.m. To three p.m. At a cost of $3 for adults, and $2 for seniors and children over twelve. Call 504.363.4202 for more in-depth information.

Salem Lutheran Church welcomed three guests from its sister church body in Siberia at a dinner in Schmid Hall.

Guests included Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin, the Rev. Dmitri Dotsenko and Natasha Sheludiakova, church musician of the Novosibirsk church.

The group was accompanied by the Rev. Daniel S. Johnson, preacher of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Marshalltown, Iowa, and president of the Siberian Lutheran Mission Society.

Lytkin, who is self-taught in English, gave a PowerPoint display about the work of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church, by territory the largest Lutheran church body globally spanning from the Far East to Moscow.

Before the 1917 revolution, Lutherans comprised ten percent of the Russian empire, but after the Bolshevik revolution and the purges of Joseph Stalin, all of the Lutheran preachers were either arrested or shot.

All churches were closed, most razed and some replaced by statues of Lenin. Some parishioners were sent to concentration camps and jails in Siberia.

After the fall of the USSR, Lutheran Christianity restarted. The governing body rebuilt one church building, St. Mary’s in Tomsk, five years back. The original building had been wiped out, replaced by a ferris wheel.

The Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church fights poverty in Russia, helping pauperised children and offering a substitute for the high alcoholism rate following seventy years of Communist oppression.It also established a cemetery in Yurga commemorating thousands who passed on in that labor camp.

Some Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod preachers have taught in various locations in Siberia in summer conventions, including the Rev. Larry Beane, preacher of Salem Lutheran in Gretna.

The Rev. Peter Mary Rookey, a Catholic clergyman in the Servite order in Illinois, lately returned to the West Bank to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of the establishment of Mary’s Helpers, a devotional group in Marrero with members across the area.

Known simply as Dad Rookey, he’s been written about worldwide his many pilgrimages to Medjugorje, the last in 2005 at the age of 90.

On the brink of the celebration, Rookey took some time to break bread with some Gretna proponents in a local bistro. With gentle humor and keen intelligence, the 95 years old shared some of his personal stories with the group.

When asked about his gift, he said “It is God’s work, not mine He does all of the healing, I just pray”, writes tagza.

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