The Laying of the Cornerstone’s 100th Anniversary
Greetings!
Officially, Lake of the Isles Church was established as a Lutheran congregation in 1936, but the worshiping community had been here even longer. The late Shirley Carlson, who died in the early months of Covid in 2020, remembered attending Sunday School in the church when the congregation still worshiped in the basement and was a daughter church of Plymouth Congregational Church on Franklin Avenue. On the one side of the Lake of the Isles Church cornerstone you can see the name of the original Lowry Hill Congregational Church established in 1900. That structure burned in a fire in 1922 forcing the Church to begin ministry again in a new location in – hence the laying of the cornerstone for Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church in 1925.
Congregations face challenges all the time forcing them to lay a new cornerstone in a new location.
Challenges can be the result of both positive and negative circumstances. My home church in Austin, Minnesota was destroyed by a tornado in the 1930’s, but they chose to rebuild. My previous congregation in Marine on St. Croix, recently suffered straight lines winds that toppled the steeple’s cross after 140 years. There was no question that they would rebuild. Surprisingly, some challenges facing congregations today can be positive as well. Worship attendance is growing and a church needs to build a larger sanctuary- or perhaps new staff members need to be hired for additional programming. The Covid pandemic certainly taught congregations to think of new possibilities in ministry. Five years later, our own on-line presence continues to serve people in meaningful ways. In that moment, we too laid a new cornerstone for Lake of the Isles.
No church should ever believe that their building and work is complete and that they need not be prepared to lay a new cornerstone. The nature of laying a cornerstone or renewing an old one is about placing Jesus front and center for all to see. It is about proclaiming him and his role in defining life’s principles, morality, hopes and dreams. It is also about reminding the world that everything rests on him.
This fall, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone on the patio, I have chosen to focus on the early stories of the church as it became a Lutheran congregation. The story of Pastor William Passavant Christy searching for an organ for his church in North Minneapolis is well known to most of the congregation, but the bitter fight over the building of the church may be lesser known. The former congregation of Lowry Hill was so hostile toward their pastor that he ran away to Iowa with the blueprints of the church to prevent them from being destroyed. 100 years does give a little distance to see the humor and humanity in these stories and to celebrate this church’s nearly 100 years of worship.
Peace, Pastor Arden Haug
Children’s Ministry September 2025
Registration is now open for the upcoming program year which begins on Rally Sunday, September 7th. Sunday School is offered for children who are age 3 (by September 1st) through 6th grade. We ask that all families register their children. Our registration form is available on our website and linked below.Questions? Contact [email protected] Children’s Ministry Director
Back to School Blessing
September 7th
All children and youth will be invited to come forward during worship on September 7 for a special blessing of the new school year.
Bible Presentations
September 14th
Sunday School children who are incoming 3 year olds, 3rd graders or children new to LOTI will receive a brand new Spark Bible. The Bibles are a gift from the congregation to celebrate our commitment to families honoring their baptismal promise. Presentations will happen during worship.
LOTI End of Summer BBQ 2025—A Great Time!
On Wednesday, August 20th we hosted our annual BBQ with a grand turn out of 80 in attendance. Our buffet tables were laden with delicious sides and desserts alongside burgers and brats fresh off the grill! Special thanks to Diane LaMere for planning and grocery shopping; to Pierre LaMere for grilling; to everyone who contributed to the buffet, helped to set up and clean up, and to Kim and John Olson for leading us in camp songs by the fire pit which was great for our deluxe s’mores!
Nursery Attendants Needed
We are looking for 2–3 caring adults or high-school aged youth to staff the Nursery during worship on a rotating schedule, 9:00 AM —10:45 AM, potentially twice a month depending on how many attendants we have. Please contact Diane LaMere for more information.
Foodshelf Donations Needed
The most needed items include spaghetti, white rice, canned proteins (tuna, chicken, beans), ramen, whole grain cereal and oatmeal, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and paper grocery bags with handles. They accept all non-expired shelf stable foods.
All donations make a huge difference. Donations are collected on the wooden cart in Fellowship Hall. Volunteers deliver them to the food shelf on Friday mornings.
joyceuptownfoodshelf.org
2025-26 Conversation & Cuisine Sign-Up
Tuesday, September 30th
Conversation & Cuisine is a casual evening of getting better acquainted, while enjoying a meal in each other’s homes or a restaurant of choice. Groups made up of 6-8 members & friends of Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church gather for three meals during the course of the year. If you would like to participate in the 2025-26 groups, please let Janna Haug know. You can connect with her at Coffee Hour, or contact the church office.
Michelle McCreery
September 2025
Fellowship Hall
LOTI member Michelle McCreery is a Minneapolis-based visual artist, designer and educator. She has shown her work in solo and group exhibition regionally and nationally. Her work is held in collections nationally and abroad.
This exhibition includes pigment-stick drawings from multiple series, including After the Storm, Beckoning Light/Birdsong, Flight, and Skype. The subjects are landscapes, sky-scapes, and portraits, which serve to trigger the process of visual recognition, perception, meaning, longing, and memory. Her drawing/painting practice involves the use of optically structured color spaces to create the illusion of 3-D space and reflected light, as well as to evoke emotion through biological and psychological color association.
Michelle also works as a graphic and web designer for nonprofit organizations in the Twin Cites. She is Communications & Design Director, here at LOTI and has also served in that capacity for The Colonial Chamber Series, Gammelgarden Museum of Scandia, and Raison d’Être Opéra. Additional projects include websites and publications for musicians, writers, and teachers.
As a professor of Foundation Studies, Michelle taught color and design at the College of Visual Arts in Saint Paul until its closing. She also taught painting and drawing at Concordia University, Saint Paul Academy, and the University of Minnesota.
She holds a BFA Cum Laude in Commercial Art from the University of Central Missouri, and an MFA in Painting from the University of Minnesota. In addition, she participated in Art Workshops in Scotland, initially with Moorhead State University and secondly with Tyler School of Art, in conjunction with The Glasgow School of Art, where she was a visiting artist.
She is grateful for the opportunity to her this work with members and friends of the LOTI community.
Norway & Sweden —with the Haugs
May 18–29, 2026
Norway and Sweden are important destinations for the Haug family. During their college years, Janna Haug spent a year studying at the University of Bergen, and Pastor Haug spent a semester at the University of Oslo. Before he was ordained, Pastor Haug worked as a tour guide in Scandinavia. Six times a summer for nearly 11 years, he escorted tours through Norway’s mountain and fjords, then on to Scandinavia’s capital cities, ending in Stockholm. Even while serving as ELCA missionaries in Eastern Europe, Sweden became a refuge in the dark month of December to celebrate Santa Lucia and buy lutefisk. Many aspects of Scandinavia have changed over the decades, but the charm of the cities, the majesty of the mountains and the allure of the fjords remains unchanged, and that is what they would like to share with their fellow travelers of this springtime tour of Scandinavia. Brochures of the complete tour are available at the church or by contacting Pastor Haug.
Cloister Renovation Completed
In November 1925, the President of the University of Minnesota, Lotus Coffman, together with the architects Edwin Hewitt and Edwin Brown, placed the cornerstone to the rising church building at Lake of the Isles. If you look closely, you’ll notice two names on the stone. Lowry Hill Congregational Church 1900, and Lake of the Isles Church 1925. After a fire had destroyed the former church on Lowry Hill, the congregation purchased the new property on the parkway, and chose to rename itself by its new location. The original cloister where the men stood for the celebration, however, did not age well over the past 100 years. The original stone surface, which had grown uneven, and the accompanying patio were increasingly a fall risk.
Although the original renovation project was simply to resurface the cloister with stone, it became clear to the Church Council that a more thorough plan was needed. Matching and replacing the stone wouldn’t eliminate the possible fall risk. After discussions with Fixed Assets, it was decided to replace the stone with tinted and stamped cement. The cost saving in this first step alone allowed the Council the opportunity to consider the possibility of resurfacing the entire patio.
Unfortunately, one flaw in the original design needed to be corrected. All of the rain from the roof flowed through two small down spouts and then across the patio surface. It seemed essential for the ongoing care and maintenance of the patio that the rain water be redirected. Fixed Assets recommended that an additional down spout be added and channeled into underground tiling, and eventually into a water garden in the church lawn.
The completed cloister and patio project is beautiful. The congregation has already enjoyed several Sunday morning coffee hours out on the patio. It is easy for older to members to maneuver around the cement surface and to be less anxious about falling. As the new plantings grow, and the copper down spouts oxidize, it should take on even more of the familiar aged looked.
Thank you to Steve Hoyt, Michelle Reisberg and Diane LaMere for seeing the completion of this project.
To celebrate the project, the church will be holding a summer camp themed barbecue on the patio on Wednesday, August 20th from 5:00–7:00. As in years past, the church will provide the meat, condiments, beverages and buns and you are welcome to bring salads, sides, and sweets. There will even be camp songs lead from the grill and s’mores for dessert.
Peace, Pastor Arden Haug
Children’s Ministry August 2025
Registration is now open for the upcoming program year which begins on Rally Sunday, September 7th. Sunday School is offered for children who are age 3 (by September 1st) through 6th grade. We ask that all families register their children. Our registration form is available on our website and linked below.
Questions? Contact [email protected]
Children’s Ministry Director