Quarter Century
CHICORA — There won't be many former ministers on hand Sunday when Holy Trinity Lutheran Church of Chicora, 2217 Chicora Road, celebrates its 25th anniversary of its building.
The church plans a 10 a.m. worship service with a celebration luncheon.
Holy Trinity's present pastor, the Rev. Joseph Boomhower, said.
“The Rev. James Higgins, the founding pastor of Holy Trinity, will be here Sunday. He will be preaching and giving a history of the church.”
Boomhower said Higgins served as pastor for 26 years and before him, the Rev. Charles C.F.W. Brecht served as pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, one of the congregations merged into Holy Trinity, for 70 years.
“There have been not too many pastors in our history,”said Boomhower.
According to Boomhower, under the leadership of the Rev. Higgins, three Lutheran congregations were combined on Jan 1, 1988.
Bishop Kurt Kusserow, bishop of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, praised the former pastor for creating a successful merger.
Kusserow said, “A successful merger like this is the exception rather than the rule. People lose heart. They are afraid to give up that which is familiar.
“Jim Higgins really helped all three congregations see the hope for them in the future together was greater than holding on to their past,” said Kusserow.
The bishop of the 167-church synod is sending his assistant, the Rev. Melissa Stoller, to bring a greeting from the synod during Sunday's observance.
Boomhower said the former congregations included the First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Millerstown (Chicora) formed on Dec. 30, 1848; St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church formed on Oct. 15, 1849; and Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church founded on Oct. 28, 1888.
According to church history, the earliest record of Lutherans around Chicora dates to the 1820s when a preaching post was established on what is now, Route 268. In 1832, a log church building, shared with German Reformed worshippers was built on a Kittanning Pike site.
Boomhower said the Lutheran churches in Chicora were unique in that a German-speaking church split off from an established English-speaking Lutheran congregation.
He said, “Usually it was an English church that came out of a German one.
“The German-speaking Lutherans came here because the area looked like Germany,” said Boomhower.
“But here the First Evangelical Lutheran Church was literally the first, and the German speakers split off to found St. Paul,” said Boomhower.
As the years went on, the Lutherans worshipping in the country with the German Reformed people wanted their own church. And so, with the help and leadership of the Rev. Eli Miller, who was serving First Lutheran Church in Chicora at that time, Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church was founded on Oct. 28, 1888.St. Paul, according to Boomhower, was served for 70 uninterrupted years by the Rev. C.F.W. Brecht. He served his entire ministry at St. Paul.During and following World War I, German was dropped as the worship language at St. Paul. By the 1960s and 1970s, the continuing independence of the congregations had become more a matter of loyalty to the congregation where one grew up, rather than a necessity.St. Paul, First Evangelical and Mt. Pleasant decided to establish a single location and build a new church.The groundbreaking was Aug. 30, 1992. The new building was built during the winter, and the congregation moved in and dedicated it May 2, 1993.It was also at that time that the new name, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, was adopted.Boomhower said Mt. Pleasant and First Evangelical buildings were torn down while St. Paul's was converted to an architect's office.The congregation did save the original bells from the three founding churches, hanging them in a bell tower that was dedicated two years ago.Boomhower said the congregation numbers nearly 1,000 members with nearly 200 attending services any one weekend.Holy Trinity Lutheran Church has two Sunday worship services at 8:30 and 11 a.m. School classes are between the services at 9:45 a.m.
