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LHS Examines Union
Churches
There was a time in Pennsylvania when union churches were the
norm for Lutherans and Reformed congregations. A union church developed
when two struggling congregations shared the same space, and sometimes the
same pastor, in small communities around the region. Perhaps you have
noticed and wondered about the altered landscape in union church
congregations. Whereas America's
early history supported the joining of Lutheran and Reformed congregations
under the same church roof, recent history has witnessed the dissolution of
many of these long standing denominational relationships of shared sacred
space. According to Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter, nearby York County, Pennsylvania
listed fifty-six union congregations before World War II but today only two
of them remain. Many important questions arise from this fact.
To offer an opportunity to explore
the question of union churches, the Lutheran Historical Society has adopted
the theme, Union Churches: Historical Perspectives for its Annual Spring
Meeting, Saturday April 20, 2002. During the morning session, Dr. Charles H.
Glatfelter, Professor Emeritus of the Gettysburg College Department of
History and author of Pastors and People: Germans, Lutherans, and Reformed
Churches in the Pennsylvania Field, will offer a presentation highlighting
the historical reasons for the formation of union churches and the role
they played in the history of the church.
Speaking from their administrative
and pastoral perspectives, Bishop Guy S. Edmiston, retired bishop of the
Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church
in America,
and The Reverend William R. Swisher, Jr., retired Area Conference Minister
of the Penn Central Conference of the United Church of Christ, will recall
and reflect upon their denominational leadership with union congregations.
Those attending the Annual Meeting
will be welcomed at 9:00 AM in the Valentine Hall Coffee Shop of The
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
for registration and refreshments. The presentations will begin with Dr.
Glatfelter's remarks at 9:30 AM in Room 206 of the Seminary's newly
refurbished Valentine Hall. Bishop Edmiston's and Rev. Swisher's
presentations will follow to complete the morning schedule. Lunch will
begin at 12:30 PM in the Seminary Refectory. A business meeting after lunch
where we will review and vote on the revised Constitution for the society
will complete the day's agenda. According to Susan Hill, LHS Program Chair,
a special March mailing to members will provide detailed information and an
opportunity to register for the Spring 2002 Annual Meeting. The LHS Board
of directors anticipates widespread interest in this program from both the
Lutheran and United Church of Christ traditions. Please plan to attend for
a fascinating and informative day!
Proposed Changes To The
Constitution
Rev. Kurt S. Strause
Changes to the constitution of the
Lutheran Historical Society will be considered by the membership of the
society at its annual meeting in April. The Board of Directors initiated a
review of the constitution and will be proposing several changes.
The most notable change is the
proposal of a new name for the society. The board believes the title
"The Lutheran Historical Society of the Mid-Atlantic" will more
accurately reflect the scope and area of the society's primary focus for
mission. Originally the name of the society was "The Lutheran
Historical Society, Gettysburg"
which was the name of a predecessor body founded originally in 1843, and
reorganized in 1989 after some time of activity. Then, in 1999, the society
dropped the word "Gettysburg"
from the title in order to broaden the reach of the organization. However,
after some additional reflection, the board believes the name may be a bit
too broad. The new name covers the approximate geographical area the
society hopes to serve through its interests in promoting and preserving
the understanding of Lutheran history.
The newly proposed constitution
clarifies and simplifies what the society's mission will be. Article II
states: "The mission of The Society is to preserve, to document, and
to share the history of Lutherans and Lutheranism in the Middle Atlantic
and adjoining areas." Further in article II the society indicates its
purposes are to: a.) stimulate interest in the history of Lutherans and
Lutheranism; b.) encourage the collection and preservation of archival
materials... and; c.) assist scholarly research exploring Lutheran history.
The Middle Atlantic region of the United States is home to a rich
and deep history in which Lutheranism played a significant role. By
focusing intentionally on this particular area the society can make
important contributions towards stimulating interest and preserving that
history.
Other changes provide for
regularizing how the society is to handle its finances, the responsibilities
of the Board of Directors, establishing two standing committees, and
insuring there is a regular process for the election of officers and board
members.
Under the current constitution the
society elects the president of the society at its annual meeting. In the
proposed constitution the president, as well as the other executive
officers, are elected by the Board of Directors. In addition, the size of
the board of directors is given some flexibility in the proposed
constitution, fluctuating between "at least nine and no more that
fifteen members." Board members will continue to be elected my the
general membership at the annual meeting.
One other change provides for the
possibility of dissolution of the society. In the event of such an occurrence
the assets of the society would be donated to the Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Gettysburg.
Fall Program at the National
Lutheran Home
By Fred Schilling
The LHS's fall program,
"Lutherans in Service to the Community: Some Historical Perspectives,"
proved stimulating thanks to the high quality of presentations, a smooth
meshing of topics, an interesting meeting site, good attendance and fine
autumn weather. The site was the National Lutheran Home for the Aged,
particularly appropriate as a prime example of service to the community
since its founding in Washington, D.C. in 1890. In 1980 the home moved to
its present location in Rockville, MD where we met.
Three presentations focused attention
on related aspects of Lutheran social ministry. The first was by Pastor
Richard D. Reichard, Executive Director of the National Lutheran Home since
1975. He spoke about the American Lutheran social ministry pioneer, Pastor
William A. Passavant (1821-1894). Reichard identified two major influences
on Passavant - his mother, Zelia, and the German Lutheran pastor, Theodore
Fliedner. Zelia (for whom Zelienople, PA is named) guided her son into
Christian acts of mercy and compassion toward others. His budding social
conscience carried into his early ministry at First English Lutheran Church
in Pittsburgh where he decried the lack of hospitals. However, it was not
until a trip to Germany in 1846 when he met Fliedner that he discovered a
model for social action in the example of the deaconess community that
Fliedner had established in Kaiserwurth. Upon his return to America, he
resigned as parish pastor and dedicated himself to the founding of
hospitals, orphanages, deaconess houses and education institutions for
which he is known.
The second presentation followed on the
heels of the first. Passavant brought the first Lutheran deaconess movement
to the United States in 1849. Pastor Frederick S. Weiser resumed that
narrative in his paper, "The Lutheran Deaconess Movement" Pastor
Weiser is well know as an historian of the deaconess movement and his paper
describes it as "all too often a name in search of an office." He
related that it was not office but need that brought the German deaconess
movement into existence. Pastor Fliedner responded to the suffering in the
wake of the industrial revolution that left people impoverished, urbanized
and rootless by creating a community of deaconesses. He and his wife,
Frederica, began the diaconate for women that grew to serve hospitals,
homeless, children, prisoners, the abused and the needy. In 1894 Pastor
Fliedner, at the request of William Passavant, accompanied four deaconesses
to Pittsburgh where the first mother house was established. Pastor Weiser
concluded that the deaconess movement is "a bridge by which the church
reaches the estranged, the weakly committed, yes, even the devout, a bridge
by which these persons, for each of whom Christ died, walk with him."
The third presentation was given at
the afternoon session by Dale McDaniel who told the story of Luther Place
Memorial Church as it grew from an urban congregation to a trailblazer in
the field of urban ministry (cf. Article in newsletter). Mr. McDaniel has
been a member of Luther Place since 1962 and has served in many of its lay
leadership positions.
During lunch, which was served by the
Home, Sister Phyllis Enck, Director of Education and Interpretation of the
Deaconess Community of the ELCA talked about the contemporary deaconess
community. Presently the community's home is in Gladwyne, PA, but the
members contemplate a move to Chicago in the future. The community
continues to consecrate new members and serve the church and society in a
variety of ways. Also during the lunch session, Dr. Annabelle Wenzke,
President of the LHS, presented departing president, Dr. Michael Kurtz,
with a plaque honoring him for his years of service to the LHS. All those
who attended for the day agreed that it was a great meeting.
The President's Corner
Dr. Annabelle Wenzke
The theme of our Annual Meeting on
April 20, Union Churches, is a subject that relates to more churches of
this region than many of us know. I remember that while researching the
history of Zion Lutheran Church in Hummesltown, I read the reminiscence of
a son of the congregation, Adam Baum, about his boyhood in the church. I
was startled to note that he spoke knowledgably about not only Zion
Lutheran but also the Reformed Church of Hummelstown that shared facilities
with it. I had known that the founder of Hummelstown had provided for both
a Lutheran and Reformed Church in the original deed for the town (1764) and
I had dimly known that the Reformed Church did not claim its land or build
its church until 1855, but I had not really considered the dynamics of Zion
in relation to the Reformed Church with which, until 1855, it shared
facilities. Each church had its own narrative and its own pastoral records
and on the face of it each was a separate congregation.
Yet Baum's articles revealed the easy
familiarity between the two groups. For instance, pastoral leadership at
the congregations was sporadic. In 1764 if Lutheran pastors would visit
once a month, the congregations was lucky. Between 1795 and 1804 the
congregation registered no pastor at all. Did Lutherans attend Reformed
services when there was no Lutheran pastor? Did Reformed attend Lutheran?
Apparently both congregations were responsible for the town school and some
of the tension surrounding maintenance of this school might have been a
result of tension in the two congregations. I did know that in Hummelstown
while I was growing up there, a mixed marriage was one between a Lutheran
and a Reformed. How did this relationship affect Lutheran identity? How did
it affect the town? Wanting some learned perspective on this issue, I took
my questions to the recognized expert on local church history and fellow
LHS Board member, Charlie Glatfelter. Charlie listened to my questions and
then opined, "We don't know. But, "he went on to say, "it is
just this kind of material that keeps us so interested in union congregations."
We have here an area of study that raises as many questions as it answers.
We are fortunate that Charlie will be sharing some of his stories and
insights into these congregations in April. We are also fortunate to have
the two administrators of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, Guy Edmiston
and Bill Swisher, who will bring their recent perspectives on the union
churches.
We will also be concluding some
Society business at the spring meeting when we review and hopefully adopt
the revised constitution. You will note that we are once again suggesting a
name change for the Society. This is the result of our continuing to effort
to find a name that properly reflects our mission. Since we consider the
whole territory of Region 8 of the ELCA as the target for our work, we need
a name that is not too broad or narrow to reflect that. We hope that
"The Lutheran Historical Society of the Mid-Atlantic" will do
that. We hope to see you in April to help us chart the direction of the
Society in the next years.
THE OPEN TENT: A HOSPITALITY MODEL
OF URBAN MINISTRY
Editor's note: Mr. Dale McDaniel,
federal retiree and prominent Lutheran lay leader is Washington, D.C., has
kindly permitted us to abridge his presentation to the Society at its fall
meeting for our newsletter. In recounting the history of Luther Place
Memorial Church he borrows the title from its current pastor, Pastor Robert
M. Holum, who describes the church as "an open tent ministry of
hospitality, welcoming all persons literally from presidents to indigents."
Luther Place Memorial Church has
stood at Thomas Circle in the heart of Washington, D.C. for more than 130
years. It owes its existence to the inspiration of Pastor John George
Butler and St. Paul English Lutheran Church of the city. Dr. Butler, a
graduate of Gettysburg College and Gettysburg Seminary, was called to St.
Paul in 1843. During the Civil War Dr. Butler, a strong Union supporter,
began to look ahead to the growth of Lutheranism in a growing city. As
president of the Maryland Synod in 1864, he recommended the founding of a
second English Lutheran church in Washington. With the support of St. Paul
who purchased the land, a congregation was established at Thomas Circle as
"a memorial to God's goodness in delivering the land from slavery and
war." A chapel was built in 1868 and in 1873 the church building was
completed. The congregation incorporated itself as Memorial Evangelical
Lutheran Church, its official name today.
Dr. Butler was its first pastor and
remained at Memorial for 35 years. An energetic man, Butler served as
chaplain of the House of Representatives (1867-73) and the Senate
(1886-93), president of Gettysburg Seminary (1877), professor of homiletics
and church history at Howard University, and as the driving force behind
the founding of Reformation, Our Redeemer and Keller Memorial Lutheran
Churches in Washington. In 1884 Dr. Butler and other members of the
congregation arranged for a statue of Martin Luther, a duplicated of that
in Worms, to be placed at the front of the church. This landmark became
part of the identity of the church so that gradually people knew it as
"Luther Place Memorial Church," what it is called today.
The "open tent" character
of the church was evident early in its ministry. In 1889 the congregation
unanimously approved a motion to establish an infirmary for the gratuitous
treatment of the eye, ear, and throat "open to all regardless of race,
creed or condition." It also welcomed presidents. In 1905, following
extensive renovations to the church after a fire, President Theodore
Roosevelt gave the keynote address. In 1911, the new pastor, Lloyd Douglas,
widely known as the author of The Robe and Magnificent Obsession, led
Luther Place in hosting the national convention of the General Synod where
President William Howard Taft gave the opening address.
As the city grew in the first half of
the twentieth century, so did the church. It reached a membership of 1400,
many of whom were young single people living in the city. However, it was
during this the that the seeds of a new open tent ministry were sewn by
three seemingly unrelated factors: 1) The movement of many of the young
members to the suburbs as they established families that led to a
reevaluation of the church's mission; 2) The purchase in the 1950s of land
around the congregation for a parking lot but also the acquisition of a
block of row houses across the street from the church; 3) The changing
neighborhood as members moved to the suburbs and left behind more
low-income residents and boarded up buildings. The changed situation of the
church was clearly revealed in 1968 during the riots that accompanied the
death of Martin Luther King that occurred in its own neighborhood.
The congregation responded to these
events as a challenge presented to them by God to practice ministry. Under
the leadership of Pastor James Singer, the congregation organized a
distribution center following the disturbance where it distributed food and
clothing from suburban congregations to residents isolated by violence and
fear. In the following months the congregation began to address the
problems of the marginalized and those most affected by the riots who were
there neighbors.
The pace of response quickened with
the arrival of Pastor John Steinbruck in 1970. He helped focus the congregation
on a wide range of justice issues, from the neglect of impoverished
neighbors to the plight of Jewish prisoners of war in the USSR or of
migrant farm workers. Nevertheless, it was the perception of the
congregation that the property of row houses they had acquired earlier
helped to stabilize the neighborhood. Wong's Chinese Laundry was at one end
of the row and McDonald, the soothsayer, at the other. Rents were
sufficient to pay the mortgage and the congregation had no cash outlay. It
seemed too good to be true and it was.
After having trouble locating a
manager for the properties, the congregation turned to one of the
residents, Coker Sturgeon, who agreed to manage the properties in return
for free rent. This seemed to be an adequate solution until one day a
scantily clad (some say unclad) woman came flying out of the second-floor
window of one of the houses. The congregation was faced with the unpleasant
reality that Sturgeon was not renting the apartments by the month, the
week, or even the day, but by the hour. It was operating one of the largest
brothels in Washington!
The church council responded by
voting to do what seemed the only proper option, to raze the row houses and
make the entire area a parking lot. However, before the congregation voted
on the proposal, there was some time for reflection. "Let's think this
thing out," cautioned Pastor Steinbruck. "That which can be used
for evil can also be used for good. Why don't we try using part of one of
the buildings for a ministry? If that doesn't work, we can always tear the
buildings down." The congregation agreed, and soon thereafter Lutheran
Social Services opened a clothing distribution center in the basement of
one of the houses. After this successful beginning, the congregation began
to develop ministries for the other houses: Bread for the City, Sarah
House, Zacchaeus Medical Clinic, Bonhoeffer House, Emmaus Services for the
Aging, and Community for Creative Nonviolence (CCNV). The property had
clearly become an important tool of the church's ministry.
During this time homelessness began
to emerge as a major national program. Patients were released from mental
institutions, addicts lived on the street and others were caught in the
widening gap between rich and poor that threw people out of their homes for
insufficient rent. Many of those folks ended up near Luther Place and were
in danger of death. With the help of CCNV, the church opened its doors once
again to those in need. This ministry became a major task of the
congregation during Pastor Steinbruck's ministry. On the occasion of his
retirement he noted, "I fulfilled my call. The call committee asked me
to fill the church. They did not specify whether the persons were to be
lying down or seated in the pews."
The culmination of the church's
ministry has been the construction of a $20 million building in 1996 which
is the cornerstone of N Street Village. It houses an expanded program for
women and 51 low-income apartments for people in the community. Over 1000
volunteers of many faiths, some from the Lutheran Volunteer Corps that the
church established, yearly serve the programs of the church. In Bible study
initiated to examine their mission, members found inspiration in the story
of Abraham and Sarah at the Oaks of Mamre who welcomed the stranger to
their table who turned out to be Yahweh. The hosts who welcome the stranger
are guests of the Host who in turn welcomes them. Truly this church was
called by God to be in this place and at this time to do this work.
Lutheran Historical Society
Newsletter ISSN 1049-6424
Editor: Mary C. McKiel. LHS
Newsletter is issued twice a year by the Lutheran Historical Society in the
interest of the preservation and cultivation of the history of Region 8 of the
ELCA and its congregations. Notes of announcements, projects, historical
celebrations, genealogical concerns, notes of church or synodical
activities, and notes from other historical societies are solicited. Send
your replies to Mary C. McKiel, 684 Southern Hills Drive, Arnold, MD 21012
or call 410-757-9501.
Lutheran Historical Society
61 Seminary Ridge
Gettysburg, PA 17325
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