Church Services

In later years the annual meeting was transformed into an evening meeting, perhaps the attendance and interest in the all-day “stemma” had declined (the latter as the older members of the congregation died off probably). I seem to recall going to one of these — it was not held in the main sanctuary of the church (as the meetings of the stemma always were) but in the social hall behind the main sanctuary (this was in the new church). The smaller hall doubtless reflected the lower level of congregational interest in the doings of the church.

I should mention that when the old church was still in use, there was a long low shed to the north of the church where rural members of the congregation arriving by horse and buggy could stable the horses during the time of the Sunday services or in the case of the stemma. I never saw it used this way but I was told about it and the use was obvious. My mother described graphically the cold ride to the church, as on Christmas morning for the early morning service.

My recollection of this early morning service (which was in Swedish) was that it would be held at about 5:30 a.m. which meant that the ride from the Peterson farm would have to have started by 4:30 a.m. at least. My recollection is that there was an English service beginning at about 6 a.m. or so. The dual use of Swedish and English was well established when I first became aware of the Sunday morning service. At that time, I suppose in the mid-’20s, the morning service alternated week to week between Swedish and English and I recall sitting through the services in Swedish when I could understand nothing of what was being said or sung.

When the first introduction of English first occurred I don’t know. As time went on, the use of Swedish declined, first I guess to one Sunday a month, and then to an occasional additional service, preceding the normal service in English. One of the qualifications for the pastor who served the congregation during my confirmation days was that he was fluent in Swedish — when this was dropped I don’t know but I’d guess that after WWII that such bilingual preachers would have been hard to find.