Knot Pining: Church on Christmas Eve brings a range of emotions

It’s not the greatest Christmas hymn, but it sure resonates when I think of Christmas Eve services at my old church back home: “I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve.”

With each passing year, I rue more and more about not being able to attend a service at St. John’s Lutheran in Montgomery. But it’s three hours away, and there is no longer a farm 8 miles away for the opening of presents afterwards.

I recall constantly thinking on those nights, especially on the dark ride home, rounding the curves at Lake Dora, about the comfort in knowing where everyone I knew in the world was just then — at home, celebrating the season with family.

I didn’t know how special those Christmas Eve services were until I left home, when coming to the church became a once- or twice-a-year affair. As an adult, I would cry at each of those candlelight services, especially when “Silent Night” closed things out. That’s the song our family had the privilege of leading the entire congregation in one year when I was a young teen. We sang the first verse alone as a family. We were the von Trapps, with Mom being the choir director and all of us involved in music at the church in some capacity. It was nervewracking and beautiful all at once.

I was gathering these thoughts when reading about Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Wright likely celebrating its last Christmas this year, more than 100 years after it was founded. There are sure to be tears, and some acceptance. Parishioners voted to close the church this fall. The parish is 112 years old, founded in 1912. The church was built by 1917.

It’s lapsed churchgoers like me that led to Bethlehem’s fate. Kids move away and the older folks can hang on for only so long. There’s only a handful of parishioners remaining.

As Pastor Tim Ehling said, a church, and its people, are more than a building. And everything must die at some point. It’s cold reality.

The silver lining in Wright is that the church will now become the city hall, and a community space where people can still gather. As part of the agreement, the sanctuary will remain, for funerals or weddings or “whatever,” said Jennie Hanson, the Pine Knot columnist who’s written about Wright and Cromwell for decades.

She said most people will end up at the sister church, Bethany Lutheran in Cromwell.

Like my St. John’s, a congregation is also community, and that can’t be taken away. It’s me in the church basement drinking coffee as a 16-year-old, learning from those old folks about the ways of the world. Connecting.

When the church in Wright celebrated the building’s 100th year in 2017, a host of pastors who had served there chimed in with memories:

Judy Anderson-Bauer: “I still have the Norwegian Christmas candle that I got at the rummage sale, and remember (the church) when I get it out each Christmas.”

Janeva Stromberg: “I’m remembering the Bible studies, potlucks, soup suppers, council meetings filled with laughter and mutual interests.”

Jim and Julie Gronbeck: “One year we had need for an extra Sunday School room, so Margaret Webster converted the basement into a ‘Roman catacomb’ and the kids loved it.”

As news spread this fall about the church closing, several people lamented in online posts:

Doug Suhonen: “One of the saddest, most depressing bits of news in my lifetime. Knowing this was my grandparents’ church as people of Swedish descent formed this church 112 years ago definitely affects my thoughts.”

Judy Vondelinde: “So many memories from Sunday School to serving on the church council. My family was there from the beginning. Heartache.”

Karla Peterson: “I remember a wonderful mother-daughter program there. We all sang ‘In the Garden.’”

Jennie Hanson laughed when I asked her for her memories across 55 years of association with the church. “I have some goofy ones,” she said. Like the time a body came to the church for a funeral planned just after her Bible school session. The kids, of course, found the room where the body was. When Bible school was ending, she asked the students what they had learned that day. “That there’s a dead guy back there,” Hanson recalled a youngster saying.

The women’s parties were always fun, she said. One year, her friend Helen brought special figurine candles for decorations at the Christmas Eve party. Someone decided to light them all. “By the time we knew what was going on we had a bunch of headless candles,” Hanson said.

“I’m feeling sad, but also feeling thankful,” Hanson said. She’s happily reflective on all the work people have done to keep the church up and running, and that it will now be part of improving amenities in Wright. She said there’s only one person left from that core group of church supporters. “She’s 90, and she’s all for it.”

Hanson called the move to a community facility after January a “good mission” for the church. A final one.

She will miss it. “It’s such a friendly church.”

Expect that “glad” at the 4 p.m. service at Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. And some well-warranted “sad.”

Mike is a page designer and reporter for the Pine Knot. He can be reached at news@PineKnot News.com.