In the Beginning
In the beginning was the Word—and for Lutheran settlers in
the Woodstock area, that word might well have been “Where?” There was little question that they would
meet to worship; they had been gathering together for services in small and
larger groups in each other’s homes and in neighbouring towns for years.
As early as 1914, Reverend Julius Badke of Brantford recommended a Woodstock Mission but the Canada Synod was hesitant. Woodstock was viewed as too isolated, too distant from existing Lutheran congregations. There was a strong anti-German sentiment prevalent at the time and Lutheranism, in many minds, was associated with Germany. The timing was not conducive to supporting a Lutheran Mission.
And so our forbears continued to meet on most Sundays, visiting each other’s homes to worship. Neighbouring clergymen offered infrequent pastoral visits as their own duties permitted; archival notes mention Reverends Vorkoper, Fisher, Stertz, Tweitmeyer and Monk as sporadic guest preachers and at times the Woodstock group would procure the Independent Order of Foresters Hall above the A & P store in the center-town area to feature such a welcome guest. It was in that IOOF Hall in 1930 that thirty-three people met as what later would become known as Bethany Lutheran Church congregation.
Imagine this scenario from around the years 1929—30 when the Home Mission Committee of the Canada Synod began to show greater interest:
Mabel meets Jane at the local grocery store, maybe Poole’s or Chesney’s, on a Monday morning and the conversation runs something like this:
“Good morning, Jane! We missed you and John at services yesterday.”
“Oh Mabel, we had our weeks mixed up. We walked over to the Johnson’s instead of to your place but we don’t go to the Johnson’s until next Sunday, do we?”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to meet at one place all of the time instead of going from house to house?”
“Yes, and there would be more room for the potluck lunches too!”
Some things didn’t change even then.
The seed was planted; the idea grew: a place of our own. Not that there weren’t other churches available—St. Paul’s Anglican, Knox Presbyterian, Chalmers United, New St. Paul’s—several congregations would have readily accepted new members. Why not simply merge with them?
The answer too is simple. They were Lutherans. They had been brought up in a Lutheran setting and wished to remain in one.
By 1934 the Woodstock Lutherans were gathering in larger groups and together had attained the use of Grey Memorial Hall affiliated with what was then New St. Paul’s Anglican Church. This proved to be a stop-gap arrangement at best, not meeting with the whole-hearted approval of the congregation which desired its own church home.
On December 10 of that year (1934), the membership organized into a single congregation to be known as Bethany English Lutheran Church and attained the Rev. George W. Orth to be the group’s first officially-called pastor. On this, our 80th Anniversary of that effort, a plaque on the narthex wall commemorates the 48 Charter Members of this church, Rev. George Orth among them.
Technically, Bethany’s first address would be 526 Princess Street, Rev. George Orth’s residence.
Rev. George Orth
With some renovations, this Parish House was able to hold services on the main floor, Sunday School classes everywhere and to provide a parsonage on the upper floor. It was not technically a church but its solid construction would provide space for a chapel to worship, classroom corners for Sunday School lessons and, possibly of equal importance, enough counter space for potluck luncheons. Some things simply don’t change.
The question of ‘where to worship?”
had at least been temporarily answered:
62 Graham Street, central to downtown Woodstock and right behind the public library.
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