Lutherans and others in the orthodox Christianity tradition talk of “The Liturgy”. A liturgy is a recipe for putting a worship experience together. In making a cake, one has to take various components and mix them together and cook them to bring forth a cake. Worship is like that and requires a variety of components as well assembled in a proper order. We know from the Bible that worship-involved praise of God--the modern connection is the hymn or praise song. Biblical worship involved prayer--modern worship has a variety of prayers worked into the worship “batter”. Biblical worship involved the “The Pericopes”, specific readings from the Bible that changed with the season and together gave a taste of every part of the Bible over a period of several years--modern worship in a Lutheran church typically may incorporate a Psalm, an Old Testament Lesson, an Epistle Lesson, and a Gospel Lesson. Sometimes the pericopes are called “The Lexionary”, but the idea is the same. Many churches at the beginning of the 21st Century do something similar. And of course, there are things like “Offerings” and “Blessings” and what Christians call the “Eucharist” or “Lord’s Supper”. And do not forget “The Homily” or “The Sermon”, or your worship leader will not talk to you again. When these elements are properly blended together and “cooked”, you have Christian worship.
Now, suppose you want to look back at what you have done before. If you were having a 100-year birthday party for a church, what kind of worship would you want to have? Can you make the experience of worship 100 years ago relevant to 2005? Zion Lutheran Church was faced with that question. A little research showed that early Silverhill Lutherans were using a Swedish liturgy until about 1920. Could you bring back Swedish worship for a 100-year birthday? Probably not! Who would understand? However, we found an English version of what those Swedes in Silverhill used a 100 years ago. Zion has reworked that liturgy from 1901 for Sunday morning worship use during October. The congregation most probably looks forward to its final use of this antique liturgy on Reformation Sunday, the last Sunday in October, so it can back to its more contemporary liturgy.
Here is how that first Swedish liturgy got down to Baldwin County. Swedes moved into Silverhill primarily because of Oscar Johnson’s promotion of the area beginning in 1896. We know that Lutherans first worshiped in Silverhill in 1897 in Oscar’s Land Office (the current “Oscar Johnson Memorial Library”) with a visiting pastor who laid the groundwork for the organization of Swedish Lutheran Zion Church in late 1905. Thorsby was the original crown of three Swedish “colonies” established in Alabama in that last decade of the 1800s. Pastors J. E. Hedberg, H. F. H. Hartelius, and J. J. Richard began visiting Silverhill on an irregular basis in conjunction with their ministry in Thorsby, as an outreach of the Augustana Synod, the Swedish Lutheran Synod in North America. The Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Church became official in Thorsby on January 1, 1897, and Emanuel Lutheran was organized in Fruithurst about same time. There were only 50 Swedish Lutherans between those two churches when Swedish Lutheran Zion Church (later called Zion Lutheran Church) became the third Augustana mission church in Alabama in December of 1905. And of course, whether in Thorsby or Fruithurst or Silverhill, they all spoke Swedish and continued to do so in church until about 1920.
Zion has been celebrating its Centennial Year since this past January and will be winding down its year of celebration at the end of October on the weekend of Reformation Sunday. Presbyterian Pastor Pierre Burns will bring Luther to life for the congregation in a drama on Saturday, October 29, when Zion will have a community open house in recognition of its Centennial. AFLC President Pastor Robert Lee will be special guest of the congregation on October 30. Of course, other things will be happening, but our “Centennial Liturgy: Augustana Synod-Inspired” was first used on October 2 at Zion Lutheran Church on the corner of 7th Street and 4th Avenue in beautiful, “Swedish” Silverhill.
