“To Everything There is a Season”

To date the Eastern District has seen three congregations close in 2011. We now have 138 congregations in upstate New York, Pennsylvania (less York county) and Garrett County, Maryland. At the beginning of 2011, Family of Christ Lutheran Church (Pastor Gordon Harvey) of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania closed its doors. In early March, St. Michael Lutheran Church (Pastor Gerard Sparaco) of Little Valley, New York closed its doors. Most recently it was Immanuel Lutheran Church of Braddock, Pennsylvania that closed its doors. We need to pause and pray in thanks for those congregations, their ministries, the lives they touched in the name of Jesus, and the members who moved on in faith in a living God greater than buildings, Districts and denominations.

My most recent experience was the closing service for Immanuel. It truly was an inspiring bitter-sweet afternoon that ended on a much needed note of hope and promise in our God of the resurrection, a blessed ending yet a beginning we all spiritually craved to hear. Past Pastors of the congregation Rob Foote and Ron Rafferty led the congregation through a service that spoke eloquently yet realistically of a living community under the cross. The words of the Pastors filled the air with an absolute certainty that faith does not need a building. Faith will continue like a flame in the hearts of Immanuel’s (fittingly “God with us”) people where ever they go and continue to serve and grow as Christ’s disciples. Immanuel had nothing to be ashamed of. The service was well done all the way to the end, when, as a final gesture of hope in the Gospel we carry from that place, all the worshippers in procession singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” were given an individual candle to light from the Christ candle and carry out the front door and into our world.

My sincere thanks to all those fellow Lutherans and others of the greater Pittsburgh community for your outpouring of love that day in support of your brothers and sisters. There was standing room only in the church that afternoon and your presence brought dignity to the moment and the message of “thank you” to Immanuel for 125 years of ministry in this place and world.

A wise person once wrote “to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven…” He had much more to say and write for us who in our day wonder why churches close and if anything could have been done differently to prevent it. I can only tell you what I saw of Braddock that afternoon as my wife and I toured the community. We saw more vacant lots than not. We saw a Main Street with closed or empty businesses. And directly across the street from the church, as you passed through the doors outside, we saw the rubble of what remains of a hospital, demolished. The whole place had a purpose and now is being returned to what it was before; to rest, for years, for decades, before it comes to life again in a new way. And it will, in God’s time.

Thank you Family of Christ.

Thank you St. Michael.

Thank you Immanuel.

For your work, your faith, your trust and your witness to the empty tomb all these years and in this fellowship we call the Eastern District.

As the Easter angel told the disciples, “behold, He is not here. He goes ahead of you….”

A blessed Easter to you all.

Rev. Dr. Chris Wicher, President, Eastern District, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod

"THOUGHT FOR A NEW DAY"

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