Cooking in the kitchen of Château le Solier

Who are we?

Leave a comment here to introduce yourself!

I am Barbara Starosciak. I teach French for www.pottersschool.org and the MAPLE co-op in Michigan. I am thrilled that my students and I can join the church in Virginia to lead a bilingual VBS.

Protestants in France today

     The Edict of Nantes assured religious peace for 87 years..  Catholicism and Protestantism were both allowed.  Louis XIII had some protestant revolts during his reign. Louis XIV was more harsh and persecuted them.  Many, many Protestants left the country. They went to America and brought their "protestant work ethic" with them. This blessed and prospered the colonies and later, the United States. Due to all the persecution in France, there was a loss of artisans, skilled workers and entrepreneurs.  Some Protestants brought fortunes with them to the new world. 

   The Protestants who remained in France would have to wait until the French Revolution and "The Declaration of The Rights of Man" in 1789 before they saw more liberty.

    Such a complex history makes religion in France a touchy subject. According to Francoscopie, 2007:

73% of French people say they have a religion.

62% say they are Catholic.

2% of the country calls themselves Protestant. These live mostly in the eastern part of France and are divided into the denominations of Calvinists, Lutherians, Evangelicals, Pentacostals, Methodists, 7th Day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses. 

A survey indicated 1, 000 parishes and 2,000 pastors.  According to the same survey, 60% of the Protestants interviewed said they did not attend church regularly. 

      This is the situation facing us as we go to serve in France. May God touch hearts and open eyes!

The main Protestant guy

   The Reformation movement in France is mostly due to Jean Calvin. He studied in Paris and later went into Law. As he studied the sovereignty of God, he became convinced that God knows all and controls all. It is not man who looks for God, but God calls man and saves him. This doctrine came to be called predestination.

    Calvin took charge of the protestant movement in France but directed it from Geneva. Many French refugees, persecuted protestants , pastors and students joined him in Geneva. From 1520 the ideas of Luther came to France and a Bible was published in French, the language of the people.  Other literature spread throughout the country and soon the middle class, the artisans and the writers were interessed.  Some of the French nobility joined later for political reasons. Calvin unified and directed from Geneva. In 1561 there were more than 670 reformed churches in France and the French protestants were called "Huguenots".

    Because of persecution from the Catholics, the new movement had to get organized. A national synod was established and the local churches elected their pastors. The pastor preached and presided over communion and baptism.

    Repression began with the king, François I and became harder under Henri II. The Edict of Compiègne in 1557 said that any protestant that was fleeing or in revolt against the king could be beaten. Certains nobles were given permission to search for heretics in their territories. Anne du Bourg, a government magistrate, was burned for his protestant beliefs. 

     But the Reformation kept growing. After the death of Henri II, Catherine de Médicis and Michel de L'Hospital tried to unify the Catholic church with the protestant movement. They were not successful.

      The kings viewed protestantism as a rebellion against their authority. They wanted to crush it. However, this movement of the people could not be stopped. This led to the Wars of Religion in the second half of the 16th centuty.

Plans so far

      We will all be flying into Marseille on July 1st and then spending 4 days getting ready for VBS.  A kind friend is lending us  Chateau le Solier  where we will stay together. We will use the curriculum of Gospel Light entitled "Kingdom of the Son". The theme is Safari.  This was published years ago so maybe your church has already used it and we could borrow the materials??? We hope to spend the month of June for translating the stories and songs into French. ( Needless to say, VBS is a new idea in France and there are no materials already published there.)

     The first week we will stay at a Vaubanfort. For the actual VBS, the children will be divided into groups and taken from activity center to activity center. A man from the Viriginia group and my dad, Dr. Fred, will lead the Science class. I will tell the Bible stories. We are hoping to have a craft center,  a sports time and to show the Jesus film. We will keep the children occupied from 9 am to 3 pm. Although the VBS is in English, we need to have a French translator with each class. 

    My students will be helpers and translators and , as you can see, there is lots to do! We would also like to put on a concert. This means learning some hymns and choruses in French. That will take practice. Thankfully, my students are musical!

    For the second week we will stay at a Catholic retreat center and do the same VBS in the village of  St. Paul de Vence.

Main players

   When the protest movement got going, it came to be called the Protestant Reformation. The main players were:

John Wyclif - He translated the gospel into English at the end of the 14th century. He introduced the idea that God is Sovereign and everyone must bow to Him - even the Pope.

John Hus - He translated the Bible into czech and encouraged everyone to read the Bible for themselves. He was ex communicated from the church and burned as a heretic.

Martin Luther - He started out as a monk and found in Romans that the just shall live by faith.

In 1515 Luther posted his 95 theses. Léon X condemned his ideas and burned his writings. Luther was ex communicated, but the idea of Reform spread throughout Germany.

Ulrich Zwingli worked in Switerland.  He was more interested in Predestination, than justification by faith.

Martin Bucer was in Strasbourg, France. He found a compromise between the Swiss and the German Lutherans. 

John Calvin studied in paris and then went into Law. In 1536 , he formed the doctrine of predestination, believing that if God knows all and controls all, then He calls men to Himself.

Calvin took charge of the Reformation and directed from Geneva. Many French refugees and persecuted protestants came to study with him.