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Parishioners in Bethlehem Lutheran Church will celebrate their 150th anniversary from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. through early afternoon Sunday.
To celebrate 2,997 people who were baptized in the church since 1872, exactly 2,997 paper doves are suspended from the sanctuary ceiling.
They are a seven-month endeavor of Bethlehem Church member Deb Warner, who got the idea from her childhood church’s 125th anniversary in Lake Preston, South Dakota, where 1,200 doves were hung from the ceiling.
“It was so awe-inspiring,” she said. “You walk in and it just hits you.”
Written on each dove is a parishioner’s name and the year he or she was baptized at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The doves are hung in order with the earliest baptized hanging closest to the altar.
Warner handled each dove 11 times as she cut, wrote, punched holes, tied finishing lines, organized and finally hung each in place with a paper clip.
“As I’m doing it, I would think, ‘This is really a person, in a real period of time,’” she said. “They used to be teenagers, they courted their wives … and it humbled me — real people went before me.”
Some names, however, weren’t easily deciphered from handwritten records.
Time faded writing on some pages, and the cursive penmanship on others caused the retired elementary teacher to pause and seek other resources to decipher the name.
She used Google or looked at headstones in the church cemetery and asked other parishioners.
“I had to decode a lot of them — is that an ‘i’ or an ‘l’ — some were so fancy that I couldn’t figure out the names,” she said.
As she came to her own family (her husband, Randy, and their children were baptized in Hills) her endeavor became less frustrating.
“It was really fun in the later years because I recognized the people,” Warner said.
For 150 straight years, people were baptized at Bethlehem, most of them in 1894 (58) and the least (one) in 2015. Two more are scheduled for this year.
“We’ve never skunked,” Warner said.
The display will remain for the month of September and then parishioners will be able to keep their doves as a reminder of the 150th anniversary.
Church’s roots
go back to 1872
A series of merged congregations created today’s Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
Its roots started with the organization of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Rock River congregation on July 10, 1872, according to the 125th anniversary story in the July 7, 1997, Hills Crescent.
“Services were held under the roofs of sod houses and later in school buildings until the church was built,” the article indicated.
The church changed its name to Immanuel Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran in 1881 and in 1884 started to build a church in the same site where Bethlehem Lutheran is located today.
The Immanuel Norwegian Evangelical church was nearly complete when the structure was destroyed by a wind storm, delaying the opening of the church until 1887.
Rock Congregation was organized on Oct. 20, 1872, merging with the Bethania congregation in 1878.
The Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran congregation was organized in 1919 through the merging of Immanuel and Rock congregations.
In 1969 Trinity Lutheran congregation was folded in with Bethlehem Lutheran. Trinity Church’s altar, pews, organ and stained-glass windows were used to construct the Trinity Chapel in the current church.
Today membership is at 191.
Current Pastor Nita Parker recognizes the church’s roots through a quilt depicting a blessing tree.
“Like the branches on a tree, we all grow into different directions, yet we are all connected to the same tree, and our roots are fed by the same Creator,” Parker said.
Parishioners are encouraged to attach a leaf to the Blessing Tree as the church celebrates its 150th anniversary.
“None of us are perfect, and as we are united with our baptism and forgiven in Holy Communion, we are blessed to be a blessing to each other.”
Celebration starts Saturday with picnic
Bethlehem Lutheran Church begins its 150th anniversary celebration at 3 p.m. Saturday when music, inflatables, games, crafts and Mr. Twister will be available until 6 p.m.
The freewill donation meal begins at 5 p.m., serving through 7 p.m.
The Sunday celebration starts with the 10 a.m. service by Pastor Maggie Berndt-Dreyer, a previous Bethlehem Lutheran pastor, followed by a potluck dinner in the basement and the sharing of stories.