Free Republic

ELCA NEWS SERVICE November 2, 2006 ELCA Presiding Bishop, LWF President Preaches in Historic 'Black Church' 06-165-JB [Click for larger image] ELCA Presiding Bishop and LWF President Mark Hanson greets pastors and parishioners at the Black Church in Transylvania following his Reformation Day sermon. BRASOV, Transylvania (ELCA) -- Preaching in a historic Lutheran church here on Reformation Day, Oct. 31, was a "great privilege" and "very moving" experience, said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), as he concluded an eight-day visit to Hungary...

== THE HISTORICAL DRACULA: VLAD III TEPES, 1431-1476 == == I. Historical Background == M ost of you ("the members of this list", R.P.'92, -Ed.) are probably aware of the fact that when Bram Stoker penned his immortal classic, Dracula, he based his vampire villian on an actual historical figure. Stoker's model was Vlad III Dracula (called Tepes, pronounced tse-pesh); a fifteenth century viovode, or prince, of Wallachia of the princely House of Basarab. Wallachia is a provence of Romania bordered to the north by Transylvania and Moldavia, to the east by the Black Sea and to the south by...

I haven’t written my regular column for a long time, but my excuse is rock solid. I’ve been too busy to write Three absolutely extraordinary things happened in the last week – well, stretch that – a week and a half. One I’ll save for another column, because it deserves its own space and details need to be filled in. The others are election night on 2 May, and 4 - 8 May, which was spent in Bermuda. Start, of course, with politics. Going into the Republican primary against eight-term incumbent, Charles Taylor, I knew my own campaign was limited....

ONTARIO NY-Wayne County investigators will consider an Ontario man's sex change as they search for a motive in the strangulation death of the man's wife. The Wayne County District Attorney's office confirmed Craig Musso, charged with the murder of his newlwed wife, Linda White, was born Wendy Musso. District Attorney Rick Healy said Musso underwent surgical procedures and hormone therapy over a number of years to become a man. The 44 year-old is accused of strangling his wife at their Ontario home November 12th, a month after the two were married. The couple had an eight-month online courtship. They met...

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Construction workers for the US firm Bechtel found neolithic ruins which are more than 6,000 years old while building a highway in Romania, archeologists said. "It is a surprising discovery of great importance for the region," Ion Stanciu, who heads a team of archeologists, told AFP. He said the ruins consisted of a funeral stone, the remains of several houses from the bronze age, and pieces of pottery. "We are going to suggest to officials from Bechtel to consider building a museum to house these exceptional discoveries," Stanciu said. "We expect to find more ruins, perhaps the...

Bran Castle in Transylvania is part of the Dracula legend The Romanian Government has announced that a planned Dracula theme park will be built near Bucharest and not in the Prince of Darkness¿s native Transylvania. It took the decision on advice from international consultancy firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers who said that a site nearer the capital would attract more tourists.Also probably based on the legendary experiences of the last consultant to supposedly have gone to Transylvania, Jonathan Harker - Ivan Vlad: Model for Bram Stoker's Dracula Conservationists had vigorously opposed original plans to build the theme park near the listed...