Brett Thoms
Ladysmith August 21, 2022
The St. Johns’ Lutheran Church in Ladysmith held its 150 year anniversary celebration on Sunday.
The celebration included a special mass in which biblical hymns were sung in German and was presided over by both the interim pastor and special representative from Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
The celebration focused on the church’s history and community of German immigrants that built and sustained it.
The first German immigrants came to Thorne township in 1861 from the Danzing area of what was then the . . .
Kingdom of Prussia, which is now in Poland and known as Gdansk, according to a booklet about the celebration.
The booklet details the history of St. John’s in Ladysmith, which began in 1872 when the first Lutheran service was held in Ladysmith.
Construction of the church began in 1896 and the original pulpit was built by J. Groneau, a local.
The original structure was then destroyed in 1912 by a fire, however was soon rebuilt using the remnants of the original stonework. Groneau then built a new pulpit, which remains in the church to this day.
The steeple was then blown off the church in 1954 when hurricane Hazel passed through Thorne, which had to be replaced.
During the celebratory mass, the church was nearly full with worshippers and featured the singing of various hymns, some in English and some in German, prayers, a bible lesson and finished with a Lutheran communion ceremony.
According to one of the pastors, this was the first large church service held in the community since the beginning of the pandemic.
“This is the third congregation I’ve served that has had a 150th anniversary, ‘’ said Jim Goos, the interim pastor of St. Johns Church. “Many pastors don’t even see one. It’s unusual to see three even though it’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.”
“There’s an incredible amount of resiliency for these people to keep these buildings open, ‘’ said Adam Snook, who was representing the Lutheran bishop of the area during the ceremony. For a community where people have often left, it’s more and more difficult to maintain these buildings and keep them open. And I mean, look at the care that they’ve taken with this. It’s the resiliency that is worth celebrating.”
“We don’t have many Lutherans in Quebec, ‘’ said Goos. “It was predominantly Roman Catholic and now probably a majority don’t go to church. It’s a German community in a French speaking province,” said Goos about the resilience of the community.
The service also coincided with the annual decoration of the graveyard and honouring of church members who had passed away that year.
The event concluded with a church dinner at the TCRA.
