ELCA News Blog
July 23, 2007
July 23 PBS program highlights robe from Lutheran seminary collection
by John R. Brooks, ELCA News Service
A pastor's robe worn by Lutheran pastor and Revolutionary War figure Peter Muhlenberg will be featured on the PBS television program "History Detectives" to air July 23 at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The robe is part of the historical collection at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, one of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
According to the program, in January 1776 Muhlenberg turned his pulpit into a recruiting station for revolutionary fighters. During a particular sermon, he tore his robe from his shoulders to reveal a uniform, rallying some 300 congregants to the patriotic cause. Mary Redline, researcher and grant writer for the seminary's Krauth Memorial Library and the Northeast Lutheran Archives, contacted the History Detectives. She asked them to investigate if the legend was true, and if the robe was once Muhlenberg's, according to a seminary weblog report.
The legend is important to the Revolutionary War and to the role the Lutheran Church played in the colonies and the United States, the report said. Peter Muhlenberg's father was Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, considered a founder of American Lutheranism and of many congregations that still exist today.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog