1872 History: St. James Lutheran Church to recognize its start during the presidency of Polk
The United States was less than a decade removed from the horror of a Civil War when the congregation of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church bought two acres of land for $12 and began building a church in 1871.
One year later, the congregation dedicated the church at 5660 Trabue Road, in west Columbus, visible from the southeast corner of Hilliard-Rome and Renner roads.
In the century and a half since the brick church opened its doors in 1872, only 15 senior pastors have led St. James’ congregation through the tumults, tribulations and inspirations of the 19th, 20th and now 21st centuries.
The imagination of how pastors before him consoled a congregation during the darkness of two world wars, two pandemics and everything in between can at times be intimidating to Pastor John Hood, the current pastor at St. James.
“I think a lot of what has been said (by pastors here), but it is the timeless truths we find through Jesus Christ that inspire me,” Hood said.
The 61-year-old Hilliard resident is to retire Sept. 1 after serving the St. James congregation for more than 25 years, but not before helping celebrate the church’s 150th anniversary and the congregation’s 175th anniversary.
The 400 baptized members of St. James and others are to celebrate both benchmarks with a series of events beginning at 10 a.m. June 12.
Hood is to lead the sermon at 10 a.m., followed by an anniversary celebration and a lunch provided by on-site food trucks starting at 11:30 a.m.
The Columbus Maennerchor, a men’s chorus that sings in German, is to perform at 1:30 p.m.
The Rev. Kevin Wilson, president of the Ohio chapter of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, is to speak to the congregation at 2 p.m.
Hood, Wilson and the choir are to celebrate inside the church’s recently refurbished interior.
The congregation raised $65,000 toward the planning of the church’s dual anniversary celebration, including the latest restorations during the past six months that include the roof of the sanctuary and refurbishing implements inside the sanctuary.
Existing ceiling murals have been cleaned and a new banner of Luther seals – also called Luther roses and widely recognized as a symbol for Lutheranism – traverses the highest point of the ceiling.
Implements inside the sanctuary, including the altar and a baptismal font, have been touched up.
The church also refurbished a stained-glass piece depicting Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.
“A company in Fort Wayne, Indiana found the appropriate glass to restore it,” said Steve Dodson, church council president.
The rose window was first placed above the altar of St. James when it was dedicated in 1872, but it now hangs in the addition to St. James where it gathers the cascade of natural light though large pane windows.
The latest improvements follow a larger renovation to St. James in 2006, when a new addition was built onto the back and sides of the original brick church, adjacent to a cemetery where several veterans of the U.S. Civil War are interred.
According to the church’s history, largely passed down from its earliest members, St. James was built from materials on site and replaced a log cabin on the northwest corner of present day Hilliard-Rome and Renner roads where nine German families founded St. James in 1847.
“You are surrounded by the history here and can feel the presence of it,” said Lesa Kuebler, chairwoman of the anniversary committee.
“We need to continue what they started and maintained so my children and grandchildren can enjoy what we enjoy. We want to leave a legacy as they did,” Kuebler said.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: St. James Lutheran Church to recognize its 1872 start
