wfn.org | 'Delafield' Television Documentary of Rural Lutheran Church

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 14, 2002

'DELAFIELD' TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY OF RURAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
02-115-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Public television stations are beginning to
schedule broadcast times for a one-hour documentary on the demise of a
rural Minnesota congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA).  "Delafield" is also producer Mark Brodin's examination
of American farming communities.
     Founded in the 1870s by Norwegian settlers of southwestern
Minnesota, Delafield Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The congregation grew
to epitomize family farming in the United States.  It dealt with all
matters of life and faith for 125 years.  It struggled to retain its
younger generations and finally disbanded in 1998.  The church building
was loaded on a truck and taken away.
     "One aspect of rural churches that I didn't understand until I
left was connectedness," Brodin said in an interview.  He traced five
generations of Brodins, who founded and worshiped at Delafield
Evangelical Lutheran Church.  "What heritage does in a communal sense,
is connect people to place and each other," he said.
     "Connectedness centered on the church because of its manifest
identity to order, community and faith," said Brodin.  "Looking around
at society today, I don't see where those relationships can be as
relevant, given the transient nature of people's lives and occupations.
I wonder at how that will affect the future of communities and
connectedness," he said.
     "As a child at Delafield Evangelical Lutheran Church, I remember
Sunday school and related Christmas and Vacation Bible School programs.
I remember the heat of my confirmation day and the importance placed on
that event," said Brodin.
     "I remember the tactile imagery -- the feel of the wind as it
swept across open fields and buffeted the church walls, the damp smell
of the basement where people met for fellowship after the service, the
feel of the curved altar railing during Communion distribution," he
said.  "On hot summer days, the ushers would leave the front doors open
to let the soothing wind circulate."
     Some memories take on deeper meaning, said Brodin.  "The pews had
a cross-like design etched into them on the aisle end.  I remember
running my finger around and around that design, during the long
services.  It was one way to be active and yet not cause a distraction,"
he said.
     "Tracing the cross takes on a new meaning as I think back now and
imagine my father doing it, his mother and her mother -- all at that
stage in life when the meaning of the words may not have had a big
impact (especially in the early part of the century when the services
were in Norwegian), but the repetition of tracing the cross could.  It
seems a significant continuity -- tracing the cross," said Brodin.
     Now Brodin lives in Minneapolis, occupying himself with a series
of jobs related to his role as an independent television producer.
Sunday mornings find him running sound equipment for congregations
televising their worship services.  "I'm making a living, but I wonder
at my own connectedness," he said.
     Brodin said he relishes the multicultural environment of
Minneapolis, interacting and working with people of other races,
ethnicities and religions.  "I think about the deep rich heritage their
cultures bring them," he said, while feeling "plain and ordinary for
growing up middle class, Midwest and White."
     Producing "Delafield" helped Brodin recognize that he does have a
heritage worth celebrating, he said.  "It is the same story I hear time
after time as people talk to me after screenings of 'Delafield.'"
     "The common experience of rural life -- connected to church,
connected to community -- is an identity that we can share," said
Brodin.  "In a society that is diversifying, it's an experience that is
unique.
-- -- --
     Information about "Delafield" is available at
http://www.delafieldchurch.com/
on the Web.

  Broadcast schedules and other information about the "Delafield"
documentary are available at http://www.itvs.org/ on the Web site of the
Independent Television Service.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html