WAUMC celebrating 165 years of faith and service in ‘Tosa

The public is invited to join Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church, 1529 Wauwatosa Ave. in celebrating its 165^th anniversary on Sunday, May 19 during the 9:45 a.m. worship service.

Special music will be presented by the church’s five youth and adult voice choirs and hand bell ringers. The WAUMC sanctuary will be decorated with red geraniums symbolizing the Holy Spirit as “wind and fire” on this Pentecost Sunday – the day the general church marks its birth when the Holy Spirit came down to visit a large crowd of people.

Everyone is invited to enjoy refreshments in Fellowship Hall after worship. The hall will feature a birthday party theme with balloons, streamers, historical displays and numerous photos taken over many decades of the church’s life. Birthday cake and ice cream will be served.

In addition, WAUMC high school youth will be selling baked potatoes with a variety of toppings for anyone wishing to eat lunch before enjoying the complimentary cake and ice cream. All baked potato proceeds will help support the church’s annual Appalachia Service Project mission trip.

A team of WAUMC young people and adult counselors will head to Tennessee in July where they’ll work to make homes warmer, safer and drier for families in need.

WAUMC was incorporated May 22, 1848 – one week before the State of Wisconsin was admitted to the Union. That initial 42-member congregation met in a schoolhouse for some 20 years before the half-acre lot at the church’s current site on Wauwatosa and Harmonee avenues was purchased in 1870 for $200.

Dedicated in 1871, the first WAUMC church was destroyed by fire on May 25, 1919. That same day the then 200-member congregation pledged $16,000 toward rebuilding.

The roof, walls and basement of the new church were completed by 1921. Between then and 1957, the sanctuary space was enlarged, stained glass windows installed, office space and classrooms added and the addition containing the chapel and Wesley Hall built.

“It’s astonishing that this congregation was incorporated as a church one full week BEFORE Wisconsin became an official state,” Pastor Sue Burwell observes.

“Visitors often comment how unique our sanctuary is in this day and time. There really is something magic about being in a place that has been inhabited by our ancestors,” she adds.

Noting that several dozen of today’s congregation members have been a part of WAUMC since the 1920s and 30s, Pastor Burwell adds, “The magic of our congregation is not just in our building’s old stones, but in the presence of people who have maintained and enlivened those stones for many years. We are blessed to have these persons who carry our history with them among us.”

Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church dates back to 1848 and began with 42-members. Today, the congregation is more than 400 strong and firmly committed to inclusiveness, celebrating a diversity of people, ideas and cultures. WAUMC offers two Sunday services, Christian education classes for individuals ages 3 through adult, a variety of adult and youth music programs and Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops. The congregation is involved with more than a dozen local, national and international mission outreach efforts.

The Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles, inclusive Vatican II Catholic Church celebrates Eucharist every Sunday in Wesley Hall at 9:45 a.m. on the WAUMC campus as of Jan. 13, 2013. 

For more information, call 414-453-0700 or visit www.waumc.org.