Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993 TAG: 9310290237
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Long
It was good because at the height of the fall color season the golden hickories and scarlet oaks, contrasted with bare white birches, provided a feast of beauty through the clear windows. Pearisburg's landmark, Angel's Rest Mountain, is framed by the entrance hall.
"A good diversion from a dull sermon," the Rev. Dennis Gillespie, pastor, quipped as he greeted me. "You won't see the best of us today."
Gillespie referred to the small congregation of about 25, including the unrobed choir, and his message, which wasn't a sermon as much as an oral history of the church's roots. I didn't mind because I had come to the Giles County town knowing that the two small Lutheran congregations in the county have been celebrating their sesquicentennial this month.
The congregation was small at Redeemer that day, several members said apologetically, because other events have brought people out on recent Sundays and "we're sort of taking a rest."
Today is Reformation Sunday and always a major time of celebration for Lutherans, who date their denomination from Martin Luther's protests against 16th century Catholicism in Germany.
And today also marks the major event of Giles County's 150th year celebration. It'll be at 4 p.m. in Lutheran Memorial Church in Pembroke, with Bishop Richard Bansemer of Salem and other guests leading the service.
Erected in 1857, the small white frame church in Pembroke
is resplendent with Victorian trimmings, an architectural contrast to the 1960 structure on the Pearisburg hill with bright interior and sweeping views.
Gillespie serves both churches; he and his wife, Carrie, drive from their Pearisburg home each Sunday for the 9:45 a.m. service in Pembroke, then return at 11 to Redeemer.
The little Lutheran churches in Giles - past and present - are all connected, Gillespie said in his 25-minute lecture, "Retracing Lutheran Steps to the Stony Creek Church." Most were started by the Rev. Solomon Schaeffer, who served a Montgomery County congregation, St. Peter's near Blacksburg, for many years before and after the Civil War.
Schaeffer comes down in history as an effective evangelist - "revival fires broke out wherever he preached," Gillespie recounted from his notes. In his day there were black Lutherans, the slaves or domestics of the few early families.
But today no black Lutherans are known to live in Giles, and, in fact, the pastor said with some agreement from the congregation, there aren't a lot of white Lutherans, either.
About 40 are usually present at Redeemer, with fewer at the Pembroke church. Over the years several smaller churches in Newport, Eggleston and Midway were closed and their members came to the Pembroke parish.
Today, said Gillespie, a handful of teens and a few younger children attend the education program. Redeemer's congregation last Sunday appeared to be mostly over 40.
Redeemer, founded in 1959 as a result of meetings at the Pearis Theater, received most of its early members from Pembroke. The weakening of that old congregation was partially offset a few weeks later by 22 additions and nine baptisms - proof, said Gillespie, "that the Lord was looking out for us."
Pearisburg's house of worship, like all Lutheran churches of recent years, was placed on a major highway with plenty of space for parking. Its steeple-less brick structure is identified by a large outdoor cross and a tower on the lawn with a bell that is rung each Sunday by two small boys in the congregation; the bell was once in the old Newport church.
A ramp is nearing completion for those who can't climb stairs; it is reached from the upper level of the terraced parking lot.
Inside, most of the furniture, including sturdy unpadded wood pews, was made by members of the church 30 years ago, Gillespie said. The little choir of eight men and women - usually in vestments - and the singers in the pews could be clearly heard as Becky Straley played the organ.
The service was simple and included opening prayers from the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship, which contains both the hymnal and service liturgy. Befitting the season, the congregation sang Luther's famous "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" as well as "Glories of Your Name" based on an Austrian anthem and "I Love Your Kingdom, Lord."
Afterward, Gillespie said he has been pastor of Redeemer and Lutheran Memorial for five years. He is not likely to break the record of the longest pastorate of Giles Lutherans, that of a 19th century clergyman who stayed for nine years.
"Giles is a place pastors come to to train or to retire," Gillespie said. Some were trained so well that they rose to places of importance in the denomination.
But he, at 62, chose Giles for his final pastorate. A native of Tazewell, Gillespie is descended from Adam Harman, a Lutheran who came to Giles as early as 1750. Having spent his career at larger churches in Knoxville, Tenn.; Brunswick, Ga.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Warner Robbins, Ga., Gillespie returned to Southwest Virginia to be nearer his parents.
Eventually, he said, he hopes to move to Abingdon near a daughter's family.
The 150th anniversary celebration has been a way to bring Lutherans from the several old churches together, and Gillespie is pleased with the result.
Old pictures and Bibles, even a chalice used in a day when men and women communed separately in some churches, have been brought out, along with a lot of oral tradition.
"We're still moving on," said the pastor.
Sojourner appears monthly in the New River Current. Its purpose is not to promote a particular point of view but to inform readers of a variety of worship styles.
by CNB