July 26, 2017 — Devotions: Lutherans in North America: Falckner and Manhattan

When Rev. Justus Falckner arrived in Manhattan, the lack of an ordained pastor in the region following Rev. Arnzius’ death had taken its toll. The church building had deteriorated and many of the members had left the church to join Reformed and Anglican congregations. Rev. Falckner ministered to the congregations in New York and Albany, and also served congregations in Hackensack, New Jersey, and Athens, New York. He had to learn the Dutch language, and was preaching to Germans, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Poles, Lithuanians and Transylvanians. While he served these congregations along the Hudson River, an additional two thousand Germans immigrated to the area moving about 80 miles further up the river. A Lutheran clergyman named Joshua Kocherthal accompanied these emigrants from Germany. He and Rev. Falckner would work together to serve the Lutherans of the Hudson River area until the untimely death of Rev. Kocherthal in 1719. Rev. Falckner would add those congregations to his duties, but he would die early at the age of fifty-one after serving twenty years along the Hudson River.

With the death of Rev. Falckner, the search was on for a new pastor to serve the Hudson River congregants, but none was found who was willing to come to colonial America from the Amsterdam consistory. However, a man named William Christopher Berkenmeyer from Hamburg was located, ordained and sent to New York in 1725. Soon he was serving 14 congregations along the length of the Hudson Valley – approximately 150 miles long. This seems remarkable to me since, being 1725, there were no cars, no phones, no lights, no motor cars, no such luxuries to assist in the process of serving so many people. Rev. Berkenmeyer would appeal for help, but it would take seven years for an assistant to be located. In the vacuum of additional help, a number of “pretend pastors”, self-appointed lay people began to ply their services creating quite a lot of confusion and ecclesiastical damage. By 1736 two additional pastors had arrived to assist Rev. Berkenmeyer and they would divide the Hudson River area as follows: Rev. John August Wolf would serve the New Jersey congregations, Rev. Michael Christian Knoll would serve New York, and Rev. Berkenmeyer would serve Athens and Albany. Rev. Knoll would eventually resign in frustration over language conflicts (he felt he was getting little help from the Amsterdam consistory), and a new reverend, Rev. John F. Ries would move from Philadelphia to New York to organize a new German congregation – Rev. Knoll would replace Rev. Berkenmeyer on the Hudson River following Berkenmeyer’s death. However, a new sheriff was about to arrive in Pennsylvania – the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg – and he was set to establish some order in the Pennsylvania and Delaware churches. (Adapted and adopted from The Lutherans in North America, revised edition, E. Clifford Nelson)

I have recently been reading a pamphlet written by Rev. Fenner and Rev. Daly – two former pastors at Trinity Lutheran, Lemoyne. One of the issues they raise in their pamphlet, which they call a “Position Paper” is the need for congregations and Lutheran pastors to work together in serving the spiritual and physical needs of the communities in which they serve. I believe this pamphlet was written in the latter part of the 1960’s. Almost fifty years after this pamphlet was written, as the pastor of Trinity I see we have not progressed very far in our Ecumenism between all congregations and especially between Lutheran congregations and pastors in the West Shore Conference. We are making progress, but we need to continue to find ways to share our resources, and work cooperatively. Pastors Fenner and Daly write in their pamphlet that “..congregations need to join hands in cooperative action. The 4 churches in our community (Lemoyne) have a Christian responsibility not to be isolated from each other, but to work together in many common interprises (sic).” What was true almost fifty years ago is still true today.

Pastor Dave

Please collect bottles of laundry soap and packages of diapers (sizes 2 and 3) for Trinity’s Table.