St. Paul's Anniversary tomorrow 7/10

On July 5th 1866, a group of German immigrants set a cornerstone for their new church on property in East Port Chester CT donated by Philip Rollhous and William Abendroth. After about a year and a half of meeting in Port Chester at the Presbyterian Church on Main Street they were now building their own house of worship and forming a congregation to be called St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Tomorrow the congregation will mark its 150th Anniversary with a worship service and luncheon. The congregation grew rapidly and after its first 100 years was ready for a new modern building. After and interim which meant converting a residence into a chapel and renting the old Mason's Hall on Irving in Port Chester a new building was ready on March 20th 1966. For 50 years St. Paul's has worshipped on King Street in what would become Rye Brook.

While the congregation began as German, there were always other nationalities, especially Finish, Danish and Swedish. Today the worship is in English although there are a handful of German emigres. The congregation still has an immigrant flavor although it is an international recipe with first or second generation immigrants from China, Taiwan, Russia, Peru, four different Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Botswana, South Africa, Ghana, Finland, Germany, Brazil and England.

St. Paul's marked their 100th Anniversary by breaking new ground. They purchased seven acres from the estate of the granddaughter of William Ward who built a castle on the New York side of the NY/CT border. Breaking ground is something they do all the time, one member was the first Lutheran woman ordained in Metropolitan New York. In 2003 they called a woman Pastor. For the members of St. Paul's breaking ground means pioneering a mission to reach out to groups that were once excluded. This is in keeping with the mission of the apostle for whom they are named who once wrote, "there is no longer slave or free, Jew nor Greek, male or female, all are one in Christ. In the 1960's their longest serving Pastor, Luther Freimuth, advocated for better housing for the poor and joined in public demonstrations for civil rights with the NAACP. The journey for an ever greater circle of inclusion continues; in 2009 their national church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as Pastors.

The celebration on Sunday July 10th 9:45am and will include a visit from the Presiding (national) Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton and a luncheon on the church lawn. All are welcome.