BETHLEHEM, Pa. – About 10 minutes into Sunday morning services at St. John’s Windish Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pastor Mike Button called all of the children present to the front of the sanctuary.
A handful pressed their way through the crowded pews, some led by the hand by a parent. Button asked them if they noticed anything different from the typical service.
“The tables all set out and ready for a meal – that’s pretty cool,” he noted. “There’s a lot more people here than usually on Sunday, right?”
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“One thing that you may notice today that you don’t notice on most other Sundays is that there may be a few tears… Those tears will be tears of joy, but they’ll also be some tears of sadness. And that’s the story of our life in faith.”
Sunday morning was the final service at St. John’s Windish, which first opened its doors to Slovenian immigrants in South Bethlehem in 1909.
With their congregations shrinking, members of St. John’s, along with St. Peter’s and Light of Christ Lutheran churches, voted in February to merge into one new congregation, called Blessed Trinity.
They also voted to sell the three churches' buildings, plus St. John's block-sized parking lot, to Lehigh University in a $3.75 million package deal.
The City of Bethlehem also bid on the properties. Officials said they expected an opportunity to negotiate a counteroffer, which church leaders say they never offered.
The sale briefly ground to a halt in January when the Bethlehem Parking Authority said it intended to take the St. John's parking lot through eminent domain, according to church leaders. The authority said a few days later it would not pursue eminent domain proceedings.
Until the newly-minted Blessed Trinity finds a new building, the congregation will meet at the former Light of Christ campus in Northeast Bethlehem. St. Peter’s will have its own leave-taking service next Sunday, April 30.
“It’s bittersweet. We are closing, but yet opening,” said Kenda Riley, president of the Blessed Trinity church council. “It’s a tough day. It’s also a day that shows we’re making progress and we’re moving forward.”
Taking leave
Sunday’s service was the first time in years St. John’s at 617 E. Fourth St. had been filled to capacity.
The church’s former choir director and organist, Jim Long, said when he started there more than 30 years ago, the church would regularly see that kind of crowd for Christmas Eve services.
“This past Christmas, I think there might have been 75 people,” he said. “From up in the balcony, I can tell [who has] passed away, because Lutherans always sit in the same seat… It’s tough watching the congregation dwindling.”
“From up in the balcony, I can tell [who has] passed away, because Lutherans always sit in the same seat… It’s tough watching the congregation dwindling.”Church member Jim Long
Beneath the stained-glass windows, congregants placed red carnations -– the Slovenian national flower -– and photos of loved ones who had died.
The service opened with choir member Frank Podleiszek singing from the church’s little-used historic pulpit, raised high above the congregation. The South Side Brass joined the organ and choir.
Among the congregation were the Rev. Leon Novak, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Slovenia, and Consul General Alenka Jerak, a Slovenian diplomat.
“It’s quite an emotional day, obviously,” said Ken Remaly, former church council president for St. John’s. “St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church has left a lasting impression on the city of Bethlehem with how they were committed to the community, and their legacy will not be forgotten.”
Longtime church member Sharon Lintner, whose grandmother was among the first church members when it was founded, said she recently found a moment when she knew the building would be mostly empty to walk through one last time.
She first visited the classrooms downstairs, where she had served as Sunday school director, then the chapel used for Wednesday Lenten services and other special occasions.
“The sanctuary is the last place I came to, and I went up into the choir loft so that I could look out across the whole thing and say goodbye to everything that way,” she said.
“This was my mother and father’s pew… I made sure that today I am sitting here, so that I can say goodbye to everything from our pew. And it's hard. And I keep picturing other people that were very close to us sitting in their special spots.”
'Love never ends'
People are creatures of “time and space,” Button began his sermon Sunday.
“As such, we grow attached to the times and spaces we inhabit," he continued. "We sink roots, we settle in, we consecrate spaces and places and times as sacred, holy, eternal – even as we know, or at least deep down, we know, that time and space is moving.
“But in a passage most often associated with spring weddings and romantic proposals, the Apostle Paul carves out an exception to that rule… ‘Love never ends.'
"The love that was shared here, preached here, taught here and acted here will not perish, cannot perish, and will never succumb to the travesties of time and space, because…”
He paused for a moment, leaving time for the congregation to respond in unison: “Love never ends.”
