MADISON, S.D. (AP) - Constructed of fieldstone, St. Peter Lutheran Church of Orland Township was built to last. While the church building will remain, its small congregation is getting ready to disband.
The church closure isn’t a failure of faith but rather a change in demographics. The congregation has dwindled to about 20 members, not enough to sustain the church or pay its bills, the Madison Daily Leader (https://bit.ly/2hNeQeh ) reported.
“As a congregation, it was a very difficult decision to decide to close but numbers, attendance and our membership was dwindling,” said Sue Janssen, congregation president. “There’s not very many families that live out here anymore. The income versus expenses just wasn’t penciling out.”
According to Janssen, the congregation was formed in 1884 and met in the homes of parishioners until the original wooden church could be built in the 1890s. Fundraising for the current church started in 1948 or ’49.
When farms and farm families were thriving, so was the church. Janssen estimated that at one time the church had 200 or more members.
On April 23, the church will host its last St. Peter service. Bishop David Zellmer of the South Dakota Synod of the ELCA will officiate. Former pastors have also been invited. A dinner will be served after the service.
Interim pastor Wayne Gallipo of Sioux Falls came to St. Peter knowing that some hard decisions would need to be made.
“They weighed all the options, looked at the hard data and put their emotions aside,” Gallipo said.
That didn’t make the decision any easier or less painful.
“It’s similar to grieving the death of a loved one,” Gallipo said the church closing. “It’s very hard for them.”
“Part of what was very hard was what will happen to the building,” said Janssen. “That made it very hard for us to decide to close. It’s a beautiful building. It’s solid. It’s not something you can move away or tear down.”
Helping to ease the pain of closing is the church’s neighbor, Charlie Johnson. A member of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Madison, Johnson is spearheading an effort to make sure that the church building lives on long after the congregation disbands.
“He felt there was an idea formulating to have a community-type building,” Janssen said. “When the congregation heard that, we were like, whew.”
Johnson, who lives on the farm west of the church and owns the farmland around it, is full of ideas about how the church building could be used after April 23.
“I think the ideas and concepts are endless,” Johnson said. “It would all depend on enthusiasm and participation.”
As Johnson sees it, in its second life the church would be a perfect venue for weddings, receptions, birthday parties, concerts or as a center for day-long retreats.
“A lot of people would intend to be buried here yet, or have family in the cemetery,” Johnson said. “It could still serve as a place for a funeral or at least a reception down in the hall after the burial.”
While the future of the church building is up in the air, the adjoining cemetery is run by its own nonprofit organization.
Johnson, an organic farmer, was part of two tours that came through the area this summer. In each case they toured local farms and had lunch at St. Peter, paying the church a rental fee and compensating the church ladies who put together the meal.
“I’m hoping we can continue things like that,” Johnson said. “What’s going to be needed is a new nonprofit entity that’s going to take over the participation of the building and build up enough of a following.”
Johnson envisions a group with a part-time director and a membership large enough to pay dues that would handle the facility’s bills.
While there are no living quarters on the site, the building includes a sanctuary with room for 250, a basement that can seat 180, bathrooms, a pastor’s office and a basement study room.
Johnson said it would be a perfect location for artists.
“It would provide a rural setting, a quiet setting where they could do their music or do their art,” Johnson said, calling the building itself a fieldstone work of art.
The church grounds are home to two statues by Allan Fisher, “The Way” and “A Victory Over Death.”
“He had come out here to church a few times and was inspired by the rural setting, the nature,” Janssen said of Fisher. “The peacefulness inspired him to sculpt ’The Way’.”
The cutout of Christ and a lamb allows the prairie in the distance to become part of the artwork.
There are plenty of ideas about how to use the church and the interest in a community center has spread beyond the congregation. There were 19 people at a recent meeting to toss around ideas. Only three of them were from St. Peter.
During its almost 70 years of existence, the church has had a storied past. Johnson recalls that in 1986, at the height of the farm crisis, Dan Rather spent a week broadcasting the CBS Evening News from the KELO studios in Sioux Falls. One night he visited St. Peter Church where farmers gathered to talk to Rather about the farm crisis.
Johnson said some area residents were in for a surprise that night as Rather got lost a couple times along the way to the church. They didn’t know what to think of the famous newsman on their front porches asking for directions.
Another time the church was in the news for a sadder reason. In 2000 the church was vandalized by two youngsters, causing $40,000 worth of damage.
Janssen recalls the date, Aug. 27, because it’s her mother’s birthday. She arrived early at the church that day to finish her Sunday School lesson.
“It was like a tornado,” Janssen said, describing the damage. “It was pretty devastating to us, but it was obvious that they needed our help.”
The boys came to the church to apologize. They paid restitution and did some jail time.
The church received an outpouring of generosity from neighbors and other churches. Now it’s time for St. Peter to be generous.
Gallipo said the church’s baptismal font is going to Table of Grace Church in Harrisburg.
While an inventory team goes from room to room deciding what should be donated and what should be thrown out, there’s still a question about what will happen to the parishioners.
With membership that ranges from Madison to Montrose to Chester, finding new churches for the members is a priority, Janssen said.
Even though the congregation is disbanding, Gallipo offers a message of hope.
“It’s not an end to the ministry of St. Peter,” Gallipo said. “It goes on forever through them as they move on to other places.”
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Information from: The Madison Daily Leader, https://www.madisondailyleader.com
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