St. Luke marks 175 years
JEFFERSON TWP — St. Luke Lutheran Church is counting its blessings as it prepares to celebrate its 175th anniversary Aug. 27 and 28.
“God has blessed us far more than we could have imagined,” Pastor Ben Bertau said.
In recognition of this good fortune, Bertau said the church, at 330 Hannahstown Road, as has adopted Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen” as its motto for the weekend.
On Aug. 27, the church will have a 6 p.m. congregational presentation of the church’s vision of the future presented by Bertau with associate pastors Brian Bocian and Gerard Townley. Afterward, there will be a hymn sing featuring favorite hymns of the congregation and a choir concert.
Bertau said the church will have one worship service at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 28 in its outside pavilion instead of the usual three Sunday services. Bertau said all former school teachers and pastors are invited back for the service.
Following the service, there will be guided tours of the church, school, cemetery and the former parsonage, which was built in 1877.
Mary Jean Montag, a member of the church’s history committee, has compiled interviews with 15 senior members of the church on DVDs which can be viewed in the church’s bridal room. Montag started recording seniors shortly after 9/11 and recently added seven church members who were part of the World War II-era “Greatest Generation.”
Bertau added, “We have a collection of 175 backpacks filled with school supplies that will be given to kids in the local community as a thank you to the community.”
St. Luke School’s fourth-grade class has created a timeline that connects incidents in church history with events in American history. This will be on display in the school hallway.
Through the years, the school and its students always have been important to the church, Bertau said. Montag taught at the school for 45 years. She started in 1956 when the school was divided into four grades in the church basement and four grades in the former school building.
Today St. Luke School has 25 teachers and aides for 240 students enrolled in preschool through eighth grade.
“The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, of which we are a part, has the largest Protestant school system in the country,” Bertau said.
According to church records, St. Luke was founded in 1845 and the first church was a log cabin situated in the middle of what now is the church cemetery.
Saxon immigrants from Germany had settled in the area. They began meeting in 1838, and their spiritual needs were tended to by a bishop from Zelienople who rode in a circuit from church to church.
In 1845 the congregation bought land from the Cooper family and built the first log cablin church. Rachel Meissner, a member of the history committee, said a second church was built in 1874 in what is now the west parking lot. It was demolished, and no pictures of it exist.
The present church was erected in 1927. The original building was added to several times.
Bertau said the services were conducted in German until the early 1900s. In fact, the German services led to a split in the congregation as members who wanted the services in English split to form St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saxonburg. The original St. Luke carried on German services until World War I. The last confirmation class in German was in 1920.
Today, St. Luke has 1,100 members, three Sunday worship services and one Saturday service.
“It’s not unusual for five generations of a single family to have attended St. Luke,” Bocian said. “There are still descendants of the original six families.”
Of course, having familial ties to most of the rest of the congregation presented its own problems.
“Growing up in this congregation, there were maybe three guys I could date,” Meissner said.
Bertau said the 175th anniversary will give St. Luke a chance to assess its past and plan its future.
