Gammel Oestengaard

Famed are the Benedictine and Carthusian (Chartreuse) monks for the excellent liqueurs that bear their names. Few Protestant church folk are celebrated for making or vending spirits. Lately, Lutheran Denmark has been pondering the idea. It began at a ministers' meeting held by Rt. Rev. A. J. Rud, Lutheran Bishop of Fyen (Funen Island). Bishop Rud told his ministers about Pastor Keiding of Valby, suburb of Copenhagen.

Pastor Keiding had a fine new church. But the people of Valby continued to ignore it, to patronize the Gammel Oestengaard, an alehouse across the way. Pastor Keiding bought the Gammel Oestengaard, improved its atmosphere, preached his gospel therein. Pleased, Pastor Keiding uttered a heady aphorism: "It is better to sit in a saloon and think about the church than to sit in a church and think about the saloon."

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