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