BY OIVA SAARINEN
Between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1, St. Matthew?s Evangelical Lutheran Church will be celebrating its 70th anniversary.
The anniversary will feature a number of events. The celebration starts Nov. 28 with an Anniversary Dinner at St. Matthew?s church with sittings at 4:30 pm and 6 pm.
This will be followed on Friday evening, Nov. 29, with a concert at the Church of the Epiphany on Larch Street beginning at 7 pm.
An open house and family day will then be held at St. Matthew?s church Saturday, Nov. 30 from 2 to 5 pm. Included in the Saturday events will be a pictorial display and collages depicting family histories linked with St. Matthew?s Church.
On Sunday there will be two Anniversary Celebration services: a Finnish service at 10 am and an English service at 1 pm. The guest speaker will be the Rev. Phil Heinz, assistant to the Rev. Michael Pryse, Bishop of the Eastern Synod in Kitchener.
The congregation was initially formed under the umbrella of the Suomi Synod Nov. 29, 1932 as the Sudbury Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Early meetings were held in the Cedar and Sampo Halls. In 1938, a church property was purchased on Tedman Avenue.
The congregation celebrated the arrival of its first full-time minister, Rev. Matti Lepist in 1938 by changing the name of the congregation to St. Matthew?s Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
A church building was erected on Tedman Avenue in the following year. At the time, church services, Sunday Schools and confirmation classes were generally held in the Finnish language.
Rev. Johan Heino served as the second resident pastor from 1942 until 1946.
The arrival of Rev. Armas Korhonen in 1946 marked the beginning of a 14-year tenure as the congregation?s longest-serving minister. A new church and parsonage on the corner of Bloor and Mackenzie were inaugurated in 1949, and the previous property on Tedman Avenue was sold.
Bolstered by the huge migration wave of the 1950s, the congregation experienced a great increase in activity.
In 1966 a former elementary school was acquired and refurbished as a rural chapel in the Wanup area.
The congregation functioned mainly in the Finnish-language until the 1970s. In this decade, pastors Markku Suokonautio and Jukka Joensuu began a transition towards both Finnish and English services. In 1986, the congregation became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Three years later, the word ?Finnish? was dropped from the official name of the church. However, the congregation still collaborates with other Finnish-speaking Lutheran churches through a body known as the Suomi Conference.
From 1980 until 2002, the church has been served by five full-time ministers: Revs. Lari Junkari, Markku Rautiainen, Markku Sarento, Kari Valanne and Hannu Savinainen.
During this interval, the congregation acquired a separate parsonage for its ministers on Brebeuf Avenue. In 2002, the congregation undertook a momentous step with the decision to hire a second pastor, Rev. Sylvia Poetschke, the first full-time English pastor in the history of St. Matthew?s.
St. Matthew?s currently has a membership in excess of 100. Services are held in both languages. There are two choirs (Kirkkokuoro and Luther Bells), two women?s groups (Ladies Aid/Naistenpiiri, and the Evangelical Lutheran Women), a Mission Circle and a Men?s Circle.
Confirmation camps are held at Hannah Lake.
Outreach services continue to be held in the Wanup Chapel and at Onaping Falls.
Everyone is cordially invited to attend the celebration next week.
